Stevia

Stevia Plant

I have been a fan of the sweet herb stevia for a while now. Ever since I met a lady who wanted to start a business making cakes and deserts for diabetics. This was back at the turn of the century. She started her business before finding out that stevia was not allowed to be used in the commercial preparation of foodstuffs. It was against the law.

Go to this bit of a rant about stevia I did a couple of years ago. stevia

Stevia is now an allowed input for foodstuffs. Coca Cola now even use it as an input.

You may have read in one of the posts that I grow soybeans from time to time. I want to produce a traditional soy bean drink for our own use. My partner has a bit of a sweet tooth so I want to grow some stevia to sweeten the soy drink.

I finally got around to getting some stevia. I had looked on a number of occassions and plants looked overpriced to me, they were up around $12 to $18 and postage was another $12 or so. Most of the stuff I read about growing from seed said it was difficult and I was finding it hard to source some seeds.

Stevia Growing Kit

Finally I found the lolly plant at Bunnings. It is a Mr. Fothergill seed raising kit for kids and priced at $3.98. I have planted the seeds and done everything by the instructions and you can see it all via the pictures below.

Stevia lolly plant and instructions

One of the Stevia Lolly Plant Grow Kits available from Bunnings. You may have to squint to read the instructions as it was hard to get a clear photo off a round container.

Water and stevia seeds added

The growing media is a dried compressed media like coconut fibre. You add a cup of warm water and wait  about 10 minutes or so for the water to be absorbed. There were nine seeds in the packet and they are small.

After pushing nine indentations in the growing media with a pencil, I wet a toothpick to pick up the seeds and dropped them in the hole.

Stevia grow kit on window sill

The pencil was used to make the holes for the seeds. The long handled spoon to cover them. After taking the cardboard from the lid, it was placed on the growing cup and the stevia seeds in the container placed on a warm northerly window sill.

I should see seeds sprouting in 1 to 2 weeks. These kits were made for kids, hopefully they are adult proof as well.

 

 

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