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Max yield vs long-term problems: is 50×50 cm too dense for hibiscus at scale?

 
Alix Philizot
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Hello,

I’ve been growing Thai hibiscus (roselle) in South-East Madagascar for the past two years, currently on about 3.5 hectares.

Young and not very experienced!

We’ve had strong results so far:
- around 0.5 kg of flowers per plant
- no pesticides or insecticides
- manual irrigation focused at the base of the plant
- good compost management

We also tested a small rainfed plot (0.7 ha), and it performed better than expected.

Now I am preparing to scale to 15–20 hectares.

Before doing that, I feel like I might be about to make a structural mistake.

The key decision:

I am considering planting at 50 × 50 cm spacing to maximise yield per hectare.
At small scale, this seems to work.
But at larger scale, I’m not sure.

My concerns:

The key decision

I’m wondering if this density could create problems later such as:
harvesting becoming too slow or inefficient
plants competing too much over time
airflow issues or delayed disease pressure
lower yield per plant even if yield per hectare looks higher

The question
For those who have experience with hibiscus or similar crops:
Is 50 × 50 cm spacing a mistake when scaling?
At what point does density stop being an advantage and start becoming a problem?


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