Divisi
How to grow Roselle
Hibiscus sabdariffa · Malvaceae
Photo: Mokkie · CC BY-SA 3.0
Roselle — you may know it as bissap, zobo, karkade or sorrel — is a tall, warm-season hibiscus grown for the fleshy red cups (the calyces) that swell at the base of each flower once the petals drop. Those red cups make the famous tart drink and jam; the young leaves cook up as a sour relish too. Roselle behaves unlike most crops in two ways you must plan around. First, it reads the length of the day: it will not flower until the days shorten to about 12–13 hours, so your sowing date, more than anything else, decides your harvest — sow early and the plant spends the long days building a big frame that later carries a heavy load of calyces; sow late and short days catch a small plant that flowers early and gives almost nothing. Second, the prize is perishable on the plant: each calyx must be picked while it is still fleshy, plump and fully red, before the seed pod inside dries and splits — then dried hard until it snaps, so it keeps for months. Get the sowing date right, then pick and dry on time, and the rest is steady, patient work.
Salil Kumar Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0 
Ibrahim Somgalia Guitti · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 120–180 days
- Row spacing
- 80 cm
- Plant spacing in the row
- 60 cm
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will roselle actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Roselle
karkade · roselle · sorrel · oseille de Guinée · bissap · foléré · yakuwa · zobo · choya
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing roselle, stage by stage
Your roselle season, step by step — sow early on the daylength-tuned date so the plant builds a big frame before the short days trigger flowering, then pick each red calyx while it is still fleshy and dry it hard for store and market.
- Get ready — before you sow
- Sowing & getting a full stand
- The long grow — building the frame
- Flowering — the daylength trigger
- Picking the calyces
- Coring, drying & storing
16 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for roselle — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack roselle
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your roselle right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does roselle take to grow?
Roselle takes about 120–180 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What spacing should I use for roselle?
Space roselle rows about 80 cm apart, with roughly 60 cm between plants within the row.
What pests and diseases attack roselle?
The ones covered in this guide are Cotton stainers, Foot rot, Spiny bollworm. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow roselle with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first