Prefers a well-drained humus rich fertile soil in full sun. Tolerates most soils but prefers a light sandy soil. Plants are adapted to a wide range of soils and climatic conditions. Kenaf is reported to tolerate an annual precipitation in the range of 57 to 410cm, an annual temperature range of 11.1 to 27.5°C and a pH in the range of 4.3 to 8.2 (though it prefers neutral to slightly acid). The plant is frost sensitive and damaged by heavy rains with strong winds. Kenaf is widely cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world, where it is grown mainly as a fibre crop but also for its seeds and leaves. It is not very hardy outdoors in Britain, it really requires a frost free climate. It can, however, probably be grown as an annual. A fast-growing plant, it can be harvested in 3 - 4 months from seed. The plant requires temperatures in the range of 15 - 25°c. It succeeds as a crop as far north in N. America as Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Plants are daylight sensitive, they remain vegetative and do not flower until the daylength is less than 12.5 hr/day. Two weeks of very cloudy days will induce flowering as daylength approaches 12.5 hr. The plant has a deep-penetrating taproot with deep-seated laterals. Plants, including any varieties, are partially self-fertile.

Young leaves - cooked. Used as a potherb or added to soups. The leaves have an acid flavor like sorrel. Seed - roasted or ground into a flour and made into a kind of cake. Root - it is edible but very fibrousy. Mucilaginous, without very much flavor. An edible oil is obtained from the seed. The yield varies from 2 - 10 tonnes per hectare (or is it per acre?).

Seed - sow early spring in a warm greenhouse. Germination is usually fairly rapid. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle. If growing them as annuals, plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer and protect them with a frame or cloche until they are growing away well. If hoping to grow them as perennials, then it is better to grow them on in the greenhouse for their first year and to plant them out in early summer of the following year. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame. Overwinter them in a warm greenhouse and plant out after the last expected frosts.

Not known in the wild.