Growing Stevia On Windowsills And In The Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Sweeter than sugar

The cultivation of stevia by gardeners and gardeners is booming every 5-7 years. Judging by the appearance of seedlings of this plant in retail, I think it will be useful if we tell you in detail about its cultivation.

Stevia can be grown indoors - on windowsills, in loggias, on glazed balconies - and in vegetable gardens (outdoors, in greenhouses and greenhouses). This is important to know for those who are interested in it as a perennial plant.

Reproduction of stevia is possible by seed, but it should be borne in mind that usually only 5-7% of seeds have germination. In this regard, I believe that the most optimal method of propagation is vegetative - with the help of green cuttings. To grow stevia, homes take light (preferably sandy) fertile soil. You can make a mixture of it from equal parts of garden soil and sand. The soil should be neutral (it does not grow on an acidic plant), and a container is needed with a volume of 4-5 liters. The purchased plant is carefully planted in a hole previously made in the ground so as not to destroy a clod of earth with a delicate root system, and after installing it, sprinkle it with soil obtained by digging a hole.

The place on the windowsill or in the loggia for the stevia is chosen light, but direct sunlight should not fall on it. This plant is very sensitive to low air humidity, so it is covered with a plastic bag or a cut-off half of a two-liter plastic bottle for mineral water.

After the plant has new leaves at the top or in the axils, this shelter is first removed for two hours, and then, after a few days, this period is gradually lengthened until it is completely removed. Caring for stevia is the same as for other indoor plants. It is only necessary to take into account when loosening the soil that the sensitive root system of the plant is located shallow.

Stevia is a warm and moisture-loving plant. Optimum for its normal growth are temperatures of 20 … 24 ° C and air humidity not lower than 70-80%. With a decrease in humidity, its development slows down, so it is advisable to spray the plants with water at room temperature in the morning and evening. Top dressing of stevia with fertilizer solutions is carried out every decade.

If mold fungi are found on the soil, it is spilled with a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate. According to experts, every 2-2.5 months the upper part of the plant must be shortened by a third - in this case, a compact lush bush is formed. Stevia can be on the glazed loggia until mid-October, when the temperature is set at 8 … 10 ° C. In winter, it is kept on the windowsill of the room, preventing drafts and cold air from the window and night temperatures below 8 ° C. Stevia should not be allowed to bloom at this time, so the buds are cut off. Water in moderation. The most favorable content of plants from autumn to spring is with additional weak illumination to provide them with a 12-hour light regime.

If the plant is planted in spring, it is sick at first and grows very slowly, but then it grows actively until September. If the root system has formed successfully, the second year plant develops quickly, giving up to 10-15 shoots from the rhizome. With good care and timely pruning, stevia forms almost 35 first-order shoots per season. When the mother plant has gained strength, they begin to multiply the stevia. Only apical cuttings are taken (usually up to 80% rooted), for a greater guarantee, a heteroauxin solution is used. The cuttings are planted in moist sand up to the apical bud and covered with halves of plastic bottles for a week (to create 100% air humidity in order to better root the cuttings and form a root system in them). After the end of the rooting period, the cuttings are left in room conditions or transferred to open ground, protecting them there for adaptation for 7-10 days from direct sunlight.

After cutting, the green mass of stevia is dried in the shade of a well-ventilated room, crushed and used as a sugar substitute. For planting on a personal plot, it is advisable to cook stevia in the form of seedlings. In central Russia, stevia grows and multiplies quite normally in open ground, and in greenhouses or hotbeds, it drives out plants of a meter height under favorable conditions.

Seedlings are planted in late May - early June, when the threat of frost passes, and the night air temperature will be 10 ° C. To protect young plants from unfavorable (cold and windy) weather, they are first covered with a film. The soil is not loosened, but it is watered in a timely manner and abundantly (they also moisten the foliage), preventing the growth points of the tops and cuttings growing from the leaf axils from drying out, as this leads to damage to the root system and the suspension of plant development. But excessive waterlogging (as well as drying) the soil can lead to the death of the plant.

They are fed every two weeks with a mullein solution or a complex mineral fertilizer. After reaching a height of 70-80 cm, the plant is pruned by a third, using the upper part for various needs.

The lower leaves of stevia can be eaten instead of sugar even when it reaches a height of 30-40 cm. Stevia accumulates the maximum amount of useful compounds by the budding period, therefore it is recommended to cut the green mass of the plant during this period. In warm, dry summers, stevia begins to bloom in late July - early August, but it is better to pluck the reproductive organs.

Since stevia cannot overwinter in our climatic conditions (its root system does not withstand subzero temperatures), the mother liquors must be transplanted into containers and transferred home for the winter. In this case, the ground mass is cut to the very base, leaving a couple of leaves on the branches near the root for future growth. A week after this cut, the stevia is carefully transplanted into pots with soil and kept in a cool place to preserve it until the next growing season, watering once a month.

There is one significant feature of this culture: during a cold snap, which often occurs at the end of summer, it slows down its development and goes into "hibernation". To resume the development of stevia, it is transferred from a cool room in March to the windowsill of the southern side and watered abundantly: then it quickly forms a ground mass of young shoots from the rhizome.

I would also like to add that in the 90s of the last century at the Crimean experimental station of the VIR, the stevia variety Dulcinea was obtained.