how's it going everyone so today I'm gonna be planting some stevia or it's
also known as a sugar leaf plant and I'm gonna be growing it in a pot today so
stevia is known for its incredibly sweet leaves which is an excellent option to
make it as a sugar substitute instead without the calories or anything like
that because it actually the sweetness doesn't actually come from any sugars
which is awesome but first of all if you are new here then welcome to my small
backyard gardening YouTube channel and here I'm all about trying to help you
grow as much of your own organic food for as cheap as possible and I like to
do are these planting videos especially in containers as well now so just like
this one so if you do like this video then make sure you consider subscribing
so basically in this video I'm just going to be showing you guys how I made
the soil mix how to plant your stevia and as well as some other information
such as harvesting and feeding and things like that the first up is the
growing media so basically stevia just really needs a well draining soil
doesn't really matter as much about nutrition because it can grow in a very
poor soils and still grow really well but free draining is a must so all I did
to make the growing media where is got a wheelbarrow and put in a nice decent
amount of my own home made compost so don't add just a bit of nutrition also
help it to retain some moisture but also keep it free draining then I added to
that about 3/4 of a bag or about 20 liters or so of just regular potting mix
and then I also added in a small amount of trace elements and then I just gave
this a massive mix around and that was it and so I'm gonna be growing them in
these cool little tubs which I will show you very short shortly so right now
we'll just get straight into the planting and I'll show you how to do
that okay so this is the pot that I'm going to be growing it in and I actually
got these from a local hardware store and they were $20 each but I was able to
get them for $5 each which i think is an absolute steal so I
got four of them and this is my stevia plant so it is looking really nice and
healthy and it is just really can't say much more it is so healthy which is
awesome so I'm actually going to be growing this only to one side and I'll
explain that later in the video so make sure you stick around for that so what
I'm going to be doing is actually planting this a couple of centimeters
deeper than it is in the pot this way so about like up to here so this way the
rest of these stems they'll actually be able to form roots and that way it'll
make it a bit more drought resistant and drought tolerant so first of all I'll
just fill up the pot with some of the soil this saw it was absolutely loaded
with Wimes which is awesome check your depth now as I'm filling up the rest I'm
actually going to be leaving the stevia plant in its pot there so that way it'll
almost form a mold and I can just slip out the stevia plant and pop it straight
in
just give it a little squeeze down that's a really nice root system there
as well just starting to get a little root down but not quite there yet which
is good so now I'm just gonna actually put these bits now to pop it straight
back in yeah there we go that's all planted so now I'm just going to put on
some sugar sorry not sure became but some a straw
mulch as that's all I have at the moment and then I'm just going to make sure I
give this a good watering in now on to just a few tips when growing stevia and
the first one is feeding which I did briefly mention at the start and like I
said at the start they don't require a lot of nutrition which is really good so
you don't have to be feeding them a lot and you can still get really really good
results without a having a really rich soil or potting mix but I will be giving
the stevia a liquid fertilizer with some seaweed solution probably every few
weeks or maybe once a month I'm just throughout the growing season
as I do for the rest of my plans secondly is growing position I probably
should have mentioned this towards a start but stevia does really well in
either full Sun not very hot Sun not in real hot like stinking hot weather so
either full Sun in a in like cool temperature or a part Sun so as long as
it has five to six hours of direct sunlight it should grow very very well
in any position and growing them in a pot like I have here he is awesome
because I can move it around depending on its location so I can move its
location real easily if it's really hot I can put it in more of a shade area and
if it's in a show to air I can move out into a cool Sun position just to help it
grow a bit better now the third thing I need to mention briefly as well is pests
and diseases so I'm really the biggest pest you won't really get too many
diseases I'm you might get powdery mildew but I haven't had that trouble
before however the big pests are first one here's a peds just general aphids
which suck all this suck all the SAP out of
the plant and the second one is a snails slugs and snails they can be quite big
pests so I did actually make a organic video on organic ways to get rid of
slugs and snails so I'll put the in YouTube card if you want to check that
out but yeah definitely slugs and snails they seem to like it I don't know if
they like the sweeter taste of the stevia but they do seem to attack that
as well so just just a bit of a caution about that then fourthly as well
he is harvesting and I won't really go too much into harvesting but because I
did actually do back in 2015 so a few years ago now I did a harvest video of
stevia when I was growing it back then so again I'll put that in the YouTube
card for you to check out if you want but basically it's best to harvest them
in autumn if you're doing like the main cut back that's when it's leaves at its
maximum sweetness otherwise just come in and pick up whenever you want it will
make a great a little sweetness addition to salads as well as I like to use it in
smoothies just pick a couple of the lower larger leaves and put them in
smoothies and as a substitute for honey so yeah you just go in halves whenever
you want but when you're doing the main cutback it is best to do it in autumn so
there you go guys that is how to grow and plant your very own stevia your very
own sugar plant right at home in your herb garden so you can just use it
whenever so I will pretty much leave the video right there but I do have to give
out a massive shout out to the amazing folks at patreon so thank you guys so
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know how patreon is just a little subscription service or like
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they get some pretty neat rewards so if you want to check out patreon I'll leave
a link in the YouTube card and also the description below if you want to check
that out but otherwise if you did like that video then please give it a big
thumbs up and if you comments suggestions questions or you
just want to say g'day pop him down below in the comments box and I'll get
back to you as soon as I can also let me know if you like to grow
stevia or if you haven't but you do want to or what you use it for I'm always
loving to hear from you guys and always learning more as well and also if you
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better leave it there so I hope that you're all happy to crack up a week and
I will catch you all next video cheers OH