Use raised beds if growing this natural sweetener in climates where fungal leaf spot diseases are common. Ensure good drainage in containers by using a light-textured potting mix and containers with large drainage holes. Online, our What to Plant Now page shows when each crop should be planted in your region. And, if you have an iPhone or iPad, see our newest app, When to Plant. Contributing editor Barbara Pleasant gardens in southwest Virginia, where she grows vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers and a few lucky chickens.
I have difficulty with plants dying when the soil is too damp. The leaves are still good yo use but it reduces the productivity. Plan to experiment with different surface mulches to prevent the problem I have found adding leaves to loose leaf teas or herbals works well.
For coffee and chocolate grinding the leaves with the beans works best. Well, seems my plant is some 48 ". The problem is that it flowers during the winter, when I put in indoor. I dont like the plant to die when the winter comes, it is tropic creature, will not hibernate, it will just die at low temperatura. And the problem I have: when there are flowers the plant is not sweet any more.
I prefer the leaves instead of dry leaves, probably just habit. If I prune the flowers and dead heads, the sweet taste comes back.
Some similar experience? Some advise? Harvest seeds? And an advise: when you use the leave to sweet the coffee -- stear them, put them in the coffee when not so hot and wait 3 min. This plant is perfect for give a good sweet taste. DO they come back each year or spread? Thank you thank you, Mother Earth News. You are Heroes and Champions in keeping America healthy. How amazing stevia is. Diabetes is so far on the rose right now with 1 out of 3 people having diabetes.
Stevia, what a help it is. A friend grew it in Kiowa, Kansas. She brought the whole plant down to Oklahoma. Cut it up into pieces and made brownies, and also added it to delightful green tea. Leaves, stems and all, well except for the roots was used. Thank you and praise you once again.
America is verging on malnutrition all due to the increase of GMO Foods. Also Scurvy. So horribly sad. William, I was able to purchase mine at Walmart. It was sold with all the Bonnie plants in the herb section. Hope this helps. Add a pinch of salt when you use stevia to make it taste better.
I just want to learn more. Started veggie and herb garden. Got 2 big stevia plants and ya, don't know what to do! I'm curious if heating the tincture shortens its shelf life.
Stevia was one of my few successes with self-irrigating pots found on MENews website in a very hot dry climate. I made a tincture using alcohol but didn't heat it - just strained it when it was ready to bottle. It has lasted more than a year in my cupboard.
It only takes about 4 drops to sweeten a cup of tea to my taste so it doesn't get used up quickly. How long have you tried using it before giving up?
I transplanted into larger containers and they are all doing well and growing bigger in my backyard. Thank you. Comment: This is my third attempt to grow Stevia: One failed, next year thrived, this year jury is still out.
It isn't dead but hasn't changed in size since planting day after received. Perhaps not liking the 70s weather?! Comment: My Stevia Herb Plant arrived just as they said that it would and I truly love the way they packaged these Plants and prepare them for arrival to you. I recommend this site for plants. Chad V. Comment: These plants came quickly and in good order. I put them in the ground and they have really taken off.
I expect them to do very well I will continue to do business with you because of the trust developed over the years. Jessica S. Comment: I buy this herb every year because I love the way I can use the leaves to sweeten drinks and other foods. Do not boil.
You should see small bubbles only. Stir in dried stevia leaves and remove from heat. Cover and let steep for 40 minutes. Strain out leaves. Pour into a clean glass jar, cover and store in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
This extract is best used for sweetening teas or other beverages. Most recipes call for dried powder or liquid extract so that the flavor spreads more uniformly through the substance being sweetened, but feel free to experiment with fresh leaves. They work well in tea blends, smoothies and fruit salads. Sweet leaf does not have the same properties as sugar for baking.
Start Stevia seeds much the same as any other garden seeds. Visit my post on starting seed indoors for more details on lighting and tips for success.
The instructions given below are based on those detailed in the book. Seeds should be started inside weeks before transplanting outside. Spritz or mist with water to settle the soil. Place seeds under a clear plastic cover you can recycle plastic produce containers or use products specifically for seed starting. Seedlings should emerge in days. Remove cover after seedlings emerge to help prevent damping off.
When seedlings are growing strongly have distinct leaves , thin them to one per cell by cutting off weaker plants at soil level. The book suggests only watering from below every days so the soil stays moist but not soggy. I watered mine the same as I water everything else — gently from above.
A small amount of fish emulsion or other natural fertilizer may be added to the water as the plants grow. When seedlings reach around 5 inches tall, trim inches off the main shoot to promote branching. You may use these leaves for sweetening. Move the seedlings to inch pots. Gradually increase their time outside. When plants have had a chance to acclimate to outside conditions, pots may be moved into full sunlight and plants may be planted into the garden.
You can see it is getting a bit leggy due to lack of sunlight. If you've been thinking of trying something new in the garden, or you use a lot of stevia and would like to save some money by growing your own, I encourage you to give these plants a try.
My only regret is that I didn't learn how to make stevia extract sooner and save myself some money. As always, remember to share this post if you find it useful, and leave a comment below with any questions. Did you know we have over gardening posts on the site? They're all sorted by category on the Common Sense Gardening page. We have growing tips for crops from blueberries to peas , season extension, troubleshooting tips and more.
Herbal antibiotics have long been used to fight infections and speed wound healing. Now, they are gaining interest as treatments for bacteria that have become resistant to synthetic antibiotics. Many antibiotic herbs also fight viruses, like colds and flu. As grocery prices continue to climb, more people are learning about growing their own food. From beginners to experienced gardeners, these are some of the best gardening books to help you grow more food, and better quality food.
Some of these are classics, others are new, and most are in my homestead library. I do…. A gardening journal is a great way to track failure and success in the garden. Some folks like to keep a formal bound journal, but I find it handy to organize my notes in a big three ring binder. I carry over some information from year to year, like my seed sowing schedule, plant spacing….
What is it? A creature from the deep? What I love best about parsnips is that they are ready to harvest when very little else is available. I always overwinter my parsnips i. If you check the FDA food recall list, there are literally dozens of products listed at any given time. Big gatherings where food sits out for hours — for instance, potlucks — often end up with people ill from some degree….
Thank you for this post. Check both sites because price may vary according to availability and your physical location for shipping. They ship in bulk. Both dried botanicals and herbs. Some bulk spices and dried foods. They also carry bottles and droppers. Vodka works great with other dried botanicals to draw absolut and i LOVE these instructions.
Ya shoulda been a teacher!!! Thanks, Kelly. Life is learning. My plants are doing great. I was wondering if the fresh leaves can be brewed along with a tea bag to ad sweetness to tea or even coffee?
Placing the fresh leaves to brew with tea will work to some extent not quite the same flavor profile, but there is sweetness. Trying to brew fresh leaves with coffee, not so much — although a French press might be more effective than an automatic drip machine. I also bought the Bonnie stevia plants. They were about four inches tall. I planted them in a sixteen inch pot. Within about three weeks the plant were almost a foot high.
Now they are about two foot high and look like a small shrub. Hi, that is how I typically use my stevia leaves. Can be shade dried, crushed into powder and kept into a tight lid container and used in any beverage as a sugar substitute.
Can be used by obese and diabetics. Just planted my stevia seedling and am looking forward to making herbal teas and extracts. Thanks so much for the information. Outstanding information. You have my email from this, feel free to contact me if you are still interested. My partner is an engineer and we both thoroughly enjoy your blog.
Very informative. Keep those plants growing and you should have plenty of stevia, as they can get quite large. Good luck! Oh yeah — the exact it MUCH easier! Thanks for the article. Add some fresh squeezed lime juice and a wonderful vodka mojito is in order! You can store it without cooking off some of the alcohol to extend the shelf life indefinitely, but then you would taste the alcohol. This post is so helpful! What a great article!
I usually end up drying my other herbs but will make the Stevia extract as described. My stevia is hiding out in the greenhouse right now. So glad I found this, I just planted my first stevia plants and was wondering how I was goin to use it.
Thanks so much for your info. Yes, you can use the dried powder. I grow stevia and find it impossible to grow from seed. Those darn seeds can be expensive too. One year I tried to root a stem from the mother plant. I dried the leaves but to be honest, they are bitter. I am going to try your method and make a fresh tincture. Thanks for the great post. Anna- Stevia can be a fussy germinator. I make sure to use fresh seed from a source I trust.
Out of 15 seeds I have one plant. Now I know I need to cut the top of the plant to promote the branching, I will do that tomorrow. Looks as if I have a couple of root plants beginning. I am planning a herb garden for the summer and plan to plant more stevia, I will begin the seeds this winter in hopes of having some plants large enough to put into the garden. I had hoped until I read your article that it would spread like a mint plant as the leaves look so similar……yeah I know in my dreams LOL!
You may have some luck rooting cuttings from your original plant, if you wanted to try that. I took a cutting from my mother plant and got it to root first time.
My method was to sit it in a jar of water and add a small amount of willow water whenever the water level dropped noticeably.
It took quite a long time to put out roots I may have been a bit light with the willow water, but I almost killed it when I first put it in straight willow water , maybe a month or more, but eventually it put out good strong roots.
I imagine any rooting hormone would do the trick, I used willow water as it was free to make and fun. Thanks for sharing your experience. Yep, Stevia is indeed slow to root — tho I had very little trouble originally starting my crop from yes, expensive!
Number of hours of light v. I have some willow bark I collected from a dead willow — I put a little of that in water right with the cuttings. The extract only keeps for 2 weeks? Is there anything that can be done to make it last longer? Tangerine — the only way to extend the shelf life is to add some sort of preservative — like alcohol. This is my first season with stevia to harvest-so this is supposition on my part.
The alcohol is the preservative, so why boil off more than you can use at one period of time? Stevia, unlike many herbs, has an underlying bitterness. The longer is sits in the alcohol, the more of this bitterness gets into the extract. So — you could certainly extend the shelf like by keeping in the booze I keep my tinctures longer, too , but the taste would not improve with age. What if I want to do shots with my morning coffe or tea just kidding.
Does anyone one know for sure about those options instead of tangerine? Too funny….. I read somewhere but please verify that you can freeze the extract. I intend to try that this year. I do freeZe it. I cook with water on the stove then pour into ice cube trays and freeze. I make a cup of tea and place an ice cube in it. Works great. Elaine- I grew the plants for a couple years myself before I figured this out. I hope your seeds sprout well and you are soon set with stevia.
If you have a smaller batch, does it need to cook less than 20 minutes? And a larger batch more than 20? Or is it always 20 minutes? Thanks for this post!
I was in the kitchen. It should cook around minutes. Watch for the color change, but be careful not to burn it. How dark should it get? Did I cook it too long? Maybe infuse it for a shorter amount of time before cooking? Unfortunately, plants being plants, there is variability in flavor and sweetness, but I would start with a shorter steep and see if that improves the flavor. Longer steeping tends to bring out more bitter compounds. Stevia is easiest to use with recipes that have been adapted for it.
The Spunky Coconut cookbook is one that I use regularly that has liquid stevia sweetened recipes —. Or is it better to used dried leaves during the winter months?? Thanks for the great article! You could harvest over winter, if the plant is inside and growing well. Laurie, thank you very much for sharing this information with us. Today, I bought my first stevia plant with the intention of planting it a in pot to hopefully harvest it all year around.
I will most definitely follow your instructions. It loves it. I make tinctures of all my herbs for medicinal purposes and use vodka as the medium to draw out the properties.
These tinctures last for years so I have believed that stevia tincture would be the same. The only processing difference is that my tinctures are left for wks instead of two days and there is no cooking at the end of it. Do you think this would work for stevia too? I wondered about the long term storage as well. So if we only cook the alcohol off when we need a new batch it would work.
I wish i saw this sooner to know to cut back for more sprouting. How well and how long do the dried stevia leaves retain their sweetness? Depending, of course, on how much you use. Have you ever tried making the extract from dried leaves that are a year old, for instance? Most herbs keep their quality pretty well during the first year. I was wondering how stevia extract I am using the vodka-based recipe tastes in coffee or tea…. You cook off most of the alcohol in the last step, so it really just tastes sweet.
The flavor is not quite the same as sugar. I use liquid stevia everyday. I extract stevia with water. I have been meaning to investigate how to prepare my stevia for storage ever since I noticed how popular it has become as in, those squirrels and chipmunks sure do have a sweet tooth! Maybe with a little lemon juice…yup, sounds like a plan! How did the freezing work? I freeze all of the herbs I grow and find they taste much fresher than dried. Very curious to know if this works with stevia!
I grew stevia this summer however only two plants made it. They are big and healthy. Will stevia survive if it is brought into the house for the winter? My plants are in a container so they would be easy to bring in.
Thanks for your article. Yes — they should survive inside. Mine did. I moved it back out this summer and it looks good. Stevia survives down to about 20 degrees Fahrenheit at night in winter greenhouse here — preferring less hours of direct sunlight in high altitude desert climate.
It seems to need more water than most other plants. It flowers in wintertime here. I continually cut back flowering tops, dry em, and use directly in my campfire-style tea.
There is risk when you bring plants inside. You can transplant mites and other destructive insects that only did minimal damage in the great outdoors, but they can devastate every plant in your house.
In my book it is not worth the risk. Make plenty of stevia extract and start over in the Spring. I have an exposed lower level in my home, so the plants that come inside from outside live downstairs while other houseplants live upstairs, but certainly you should do what works best for your situation. Thanks, Wendy. Wendy — how are you accessing the site? How are you trying to book mark, and what error messages are you getting? I was thinking that stevia was a perennial. I am so glad I read this — now I know that I definitely need to harvest it this weekend.
GA but my stevia in a pot seems happy in my kitchen even if it is getting a bit leggy! I had so much trouble getting seed to sprout I decided to dig it up and bring it inside. I went out and bought a stevia plant this summer after reading your article on how to extract the sweetness from the leaves.
Imagine my surprise last week when spotting the dead stevia plant, I also saw a bit of greenery at the base of the dead stalk! Was it a weed or perchance, stevia? I almost killed mine just like that.
Thank You so much for the info Sweety. My Grandaddy was a master gardener and I have been raised around it and canning all my life 50 yrs worth. This year I tried strawbale gardening for the first time and had pretty good success all things considered. The straw bales tend to remain at a pH of 7. Would they possibly be a good choice for Stevia plants?
By the way.. I was wondering how to convert a recipe from sugar to your stevia extract.
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