diff --git a/mariadb/templates/etc/_wsrep.cnf.tpl b/mariadb/templates/etc/_wsrep.cnf.tpl
index f5eb0f76f3..1022dc8cd2 100644
--- a/mariadb/templates/etc/_wsrep.cnf.tpl
+++ b/mariadb/templates/etc/_wsrep.cnf.tpl
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ wsrep_provider=/usr/lib/galera/libgalera_smm.so
 wsrep_provider_options="gcache.size=512M"
 wsrep_slave_threads=12
 wsrep_sst_auth=root:{{ .Values.database.root_password }}
+wsrep_sst_method={{ .Values.database.wsrep_sst_method }}
 # xtrabackup-v2 would be more desirable here, but its
 # not in the upstream stackanetes images
 # ()[mysql@mariadb-seed-gdqr8 /]$ xtrabackup --version
diff --git a/mariadb/values.yaml b/mariadb/values.yaml
index a07ab1b190..70c6173116 100644
--- a/mariadb/values.yaml
+++ b/mariadb/values.yaml
@@ -76,3 +76,4 @@ database:
   root_password: password
   cluster_name: mariadb
   node_name: master
+  wsrep_sst_method: rsync