Alright.
John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com, and today we are looking at really cool plants.
This one is actually called Stevia, and I love stevia.
Stevia is many, many, many times stronger, or actually, sorry, sweeter than sugar, and
it does not contain any sugar in it.
So this is a plant.
It’s an herb.
Actually, I’ve got, some people have a hard time finding Stevia herb growing.
Lets see, I found my plants at actually Target, and Home Depot of all places.
I think I also got some at a nursery, or whatnot, but I mean, just look at regular places like
Target, and Home Depot in the herb section where the herbs are being sold, and you may
find it.
So this plant here is grown in northern California.
I think in a zone 9 or something, but it freezes in the winter time.
So what happens is it dies back down to the base, and basically I clip it down every year.
So you can kind of see basically where I’ve clipped it down last year, and then basically
every year the root stays alive under the ground, and it basically sprouts up new growth
every year, and it’s really quite delicious.
So what I do is let it grow all summer long, and lets see, into the fall, and it still
is growing pretty good in the fall.
Then pretty much it will go to flower, and right when it goes to flower before the first
frost, I basically cut it down.
So I cut it down at the base, and then I’ll basically dehydrate the leaves at a low temperature,
and then I’ll have dry Stevia leaves I could use year round.
That’s pretty much how I do it.
Sometimes, I miss the point where I should, it frosts before I could actually cut them
down, so then the leaves turn black, and then they’re basically no longer usable, but
in those cases I actually ended up with a lot of seeds.
So Stevia seeds which I’ve heard have sometimes viability challenges, or don’t basically
sprout easily, or don’t grow easy.
So, I guess, there’s a couple of techniques to do that I’ve looked into is basically
keeping them really warm while you’re trying to sprout the Stevia seeds to grow them.
I have had really good success propagating Stevia by cuttings.
So basically, you want to take the guy here right at the tip, and basically cut off probably
right around here, and so you have basically this much, and you'll take off a couple sets
of leaves, and basically root this, and it will actually root really well.
I have about 24 in the greenhouse right now that I rooted last year.
They’re coming along really good.
So, probably, I would recommend propagating Stevia by basically cuttings, and rooting
them instead of seeds.
Although, seeds are easier to transport, and order online, cuttings can be difficult or
more expensive to buy starter plants at that point because they just want to send you cuttings
because it’s not gonna make it.
So Stevia.
One of my favourite non-sugar sweeteners to use, and it’s great to make tea out of the
fresh leaves, adding it to recipes to make things sweeter.
Now, I have noticed that I have at least two different varieties of Stevia here, there’s
one plant here, and I have another plant over here, right there, and I have another one
there, one there, and one here, and if you look at them really closely they look a little
bit different, like this one here has more long, slender leaves, and this guy here the
leaves aren’t quite as long, and I bought these at different stores at different times
so I think they might be a little bit different varieties.
Another thing is that they taste a little bit different from each other.
One has a little bit less after taste, and I don’t remember/recall, which one it is,
but I will just go out and pick some, whichever one.
I mean, to me it’s all the same.
They’re all quite unique, and quite delicious.
So, once again, Stevia.
I’m John Kohler with Growing Your Greens, and you can grow your own greens.