This year's roselle crop was amazing!

The roselle was almost as tall as the house.

This year's roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) crop was amazing even though we were out-of-town for almost 2 months starting at the end of March and again for a month in midsummer. I planned for survival of the roselle shrubs during these trips in a couple of ways. 

- I'd planted them on the back (house-side) of a 10'-long swale and surrounded the area with several wire tomato cages to keep them upright and also to protect them from the deer. 
- The bottom of the swale had been enriched with several loads of kitchen scraps when the roselle shrubs still were small. (Read this article for details on composting in place.) 
- I'd planted tomatoes mostly to one side of the roselle bed, but then strung the sprawling tomato plants onto the front tomato cages. This was also to keep the deer away, because they do not favor tomatoes.
- Before we left on our trip in March, I placed the end of the rain barrel hose into the swale and left the rain barrel on a very slow drip. This way all the water from that downspout was used to irrigate the roselle. 
- Before we left on the second trip, I propped up the plants and tied them together to two 12' poles and to the house. 

The roselle doesn't begin to flower until the nights get longer, so be sure your roselle will not receive artificial light at night. This year, the first bloom was on September 14th. In a week or so, I was picking roselle calyces every day. I used some of them right away, but I peeled most of the calyces from the fruit and froze them in bags--four cups at a time, which is what's needed to make two loaves of roselle bread. Read my other roselle article for more information on this African crop, how to process them, and for several recipes. 

The first roselle bloom was on Sept. 14th.

Natural predator at work.

Later in the season the roselle stems bent under all that weight, especially after a hard rain.

Just one of the many treats made from roselle so
far this year.

My friend, Amy Morie, got an armload
of roselle. I gave away 3 batches.

I'd frozen more than a dozen 4-cup bags and was harvesting more every day, so I posted a notice on a local Facebook group that I had roselle to share. I had three takers over the next two weeks. Meanwhile, I harvested more for us as well. But it was time to call it a season, so the last two takers got big armloads of branches.

Since the roselle had been so prolific, I was
very surprised to see all the root-knot nematode
 damage to the roots.

Root-knot Nematodes!

The roselle had been so prolific this year that when I pulled it out, I was shocked to see that they all had been badly infested with root-knot nematodes.

Okay, time to put my research to good use. I cleaned out the bed of all the roselle roots and weeds. Then I added some rich soil from under the chipped mulched paths. (Read this article to see how that works.) 

I have now planted marigold seeds for a cover crop. This bed will stay out of crop rotation until next fall. I'll replant marigolds if they are killed by frost. I'll dig them into the soil a few weeks before next fall's crop planting. This article explains how it works and this article shows the result the next year. 

Here is the cleaned up roselle bed, which has
been planted with marigold seeds.  

The usual arrangement for this bed is wide rows, but for a cover crop, it's one wide, shallow swale to keep in the moisture.

Sustainable gardeners are always working to improve their odds for successful crops harvests. I hope you are growing more of your food. 

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt