Growing rhodiola rosea in containers, container size ?

Hello,

As I'm making plans for my plants, I plan to plant rhodiola. As it seems to require a while before the roots are good enough to harvest, I'm currently planning to grow them in pots.

How big should a pot be for one rhodiola ? I've looked online, and I've found no information on the size of the pot. 5 liters ? 10 liters ? 20 ?

If anyone know...

Mike,
I have no experience in growing Rhodiola, however it does grow wild around here (I'll try and find a picture for you). It's habitat seems to be sea cliffs, so the plant itself does not seem to require much soil. However to obtain good roots I would suggest as deep a pot as you can manage, with well drained substrate. I hope this helps.

Hey,

If you happen to have a few photos, especially of aged plants, that would be great.

I've found a few information on the pot size, and it seems that 20 to 30cm diameter is good, but there's no more information about if that's enough for decent roots.

Hi Mike,
I had a good look through my photos and thought I didn't have any but I did find a few in the end in a completely different folder! (I must sort out my photos!)

First a view of the cliffs where I remembered seeing them growing. Unfortunately the Rodiola plants are actually out of shot to the right, they grow out of reach, about half way up the cliff and higher. This is a north facing cliff right on the sea, so cool and wet conditions, but well drained.

Rhodiola-rosea-typical-growing-conditions

Next a nice shot of some plants taken in summer a few years ago. These are growing on a rock face a lot higher up, above the main cliffs. I think these face slightly South of West, so really exposed to out wet windy weather.

Rhodiola-rosea-growing-on-Isle-of-Skye

Finally a closer picture of the lovely flowers on a mature plant in the same area:

Rhodiola-rosea-plant-close-view

I hope these are of some help. As you can see, the plants don't appear to need much soil. They seem very similar in appearance and growth habit to Sedum spectabile. You can quite often find clumps of Rhodiola that has washed off the cliffs, or where the cliffs have fallen away.

Thanks for the lovely photos ! It's a shame I don't have any cliffs to plant them into. Do regular sized pots works too ?


Seriously, it seems that indeed they don't seem to require a lot of soil. Which is a good news with everything I want to plant. Thanks again, I also forgot about how they flower, they will even make up for a nice ornamental plants in the first years.

I was down on the beach collecting seaweed today (12 bags of seaweed and 2 bags of rubbish as 'pay back') and found a little lump of roseroot washed up with the seaweed! I'm going to try planting it on my drivebank (south facing slope with retaining stones) to see if I can get it to grow. Mike - the smell of the cut end is incredible - it does really smell of rosewater!

I can't wait for a harvest. However I'm not sure about the health of the three rhodiola I have already, It seems they don't need a lot of water, so I'm trying to not water them too often (they are outside, but not receiving rain). Obviously it's winter, so it won't far as well as in summer; do they look fine to you ? I'll be planting some soon, and am thinking about dividing them using the root; I don't know if the medicinal content would be affected if I divide them by the root, as it seems they need about 5 years to reach a decent size.

Mike,
Those look great to me. The ones here, as far as I can tell, have shrunk back to the 'trunks' with just the shrivelled remains of the leaves. I suspect each of the trunks has a good chance of rooting if put in some well drained substrate. It's certainly worth a shot in my opinion. I suspect they need a fair amount of moisture (we're not called the misty isle here for no reason!), but well drained, and cool.

I will try this as soon as I post. I already transplanted them and switched some of the soil I had in a few ashwagandhas pots, which are draining  too fast and making a mess; so that better draining soil went for the rhodiola.

Too bad it takes literally years before they can be harvest, because right now I'm taking 4g of home grown ashwagandha every day, and the effects are wonderful.

So I ended up putting one of the branch of one rhodiola in another pot, meaning I have one plant in two pots now. Your comment was spot on at least for this one, because I noticed a few tiny roots.

It seems that they can be propagated by roots, just like potatoes. And it seems that the dose is quite low, 100mg to 200mg per day for the powder, unless you make a tincture with it (so then, 100g mean 500ml of tincture).