Plantings Your Stevia Plants

Brief introduction to the Stevia

 The main advantage of Steviaplant is that it can replace sugar (sucrose) mainly used as the table sugar, pastries, pickles, yoghurt etc. South America need not be the only successful Stevia grower; instead this plant has proved adaptable and capable of being cultivated in climate as discrete as Florida or Southern Canada.  Home grown Stevia may lack the efficiency of the refined white Stevia, the general range of whole Stevioside content is form 81 to 91 percent when compared to leaf is approximately 12 percent.

Start Your Own Stevia Plantation Patch

You need to have a fairly smooth, firm planting surface which has been cultivated before. Even if you do not have such a land you can always start from the scratch by making your land smooth by ploughing it to make it smooth. Then plant your seeds into them and leave them to germinate. Always remember not all Stevia plants are created equal in terms of the Stevioside   content, therefore it is better to see if the plants you are buying have been cultivated from cuttings whose parent has high Stevioside. As tender young Stevia plants are sensitive to low temperatures you have to wait till the frost is gone and the soil temperatures are high before you transplant them into your garden.

Plant your Stevia in rows 20 to 25 inches apart, leaving around 18 inches between plants, as the plants grow to a height of about 30 inches  and 18 to 23 inches in width

Take proper care of your Stevia

For your Stevia to grow properly you should avoid extremely cold and hot temperatures, instead grow them in a moderate climate. These plants grow best in rich, loamy soil, same as that of the plants which we grow in our garden. If your soil is sandy, add extra nutrients near their roots.

See that the roots are not affected with abundant of moisture, therefore avoid over watering them which makes the soil soggy. Most organic fertilizers work well on these plants as they release nitrogen slowly.

 Protect your Stevia from weeds and pest

Steviaplants require hand cleaning and weeding. You need to protect your plant from cutworms mainly, whereas insect pest pressure is less. It is important to protect your crop from Septoria disease as it causes tremendous damage to the plant.

Harvesting

Harvesting can be done late, as the cool temperatures and shorter days boost the sweetness of the plants as they advance into the reproductive state. But be sure that you should not expose them to frost.

When you want to harvest your Stevia, the easiest way is to cut off the branches off excluding the shears before taking off the leaves.

Unseal the Sweetness of your harvest

Once you gather all your leaves, you need to dry them. Spread them on the net. Good air circulation is required for the leaves to dry. Although sun drying is well preferred, home dehydrator can be used as well.

Now, finally crush the dry leaves, revealing Stevia sweetened powder. This can be done either by hand or a coffee grinder for better results.