Probably, someone believes that it is impossible to grow a natural sweetener without carbohydrates and calories at home. This is because you do not know about a unique plant - stevia. A wonderful natural sweetener, which, which is very important, can be grown in the country, in the garden and even in the kitchen.
Honey grass (stevia) is actually not such a rare inhabitant of garden plots, balconies and flower beds. The plant is able not only to decorate your site or home, but also has many useful properties. About how to grow stevia at home, we will tell in this article. We hope that the advice of experienced gardeners will be useful to you.
Stevia: plant description
The name of the plant unites a huge genus of perennials belonging to the family of asters. He combined over 250 species of various shrubs and grasses. They come from the plains and highlands of America. The most famous and popular species is honey stevia, which has long been cultivated in many suburban areas of our country.
The plant was first studied by the botanist Stevus (XVI century), whose name it was named. Antonio Bertoni was the first to find out (and this was during the expedition to Paraguay) that the aborigines used this herb for food. He noted that the Indians prepared sweet and tasty drinks from the plant, which they called “guarani”.
Stevia is a perennial herb. Its leaves contain glucoside (stevioside), which is 300 times sweeter than sucrose. Such a sugar substitute is useful to absolutely everyone, especially people who are obese and diabetes. That is why gardeners from different regions seek to grow it in their plots. However, not everyone knows how to grow stevia from seeds in the country.
Honey grass is a shrub whose height reaches 80 cm. It has a developed root system, branches abundantly, the stems cover small paired leaves. The plant blooms with small white flowers. Today it is widely used for cooking in Asia and South America.
Growing conditions
Stevia loves sunlight and respects warmth, so it should be grown in a well-lit place, protected from drafts and sudden gusts of wind. The ideal temperature for growing it is at least +22 ° C. Stevia should not be planted in lowlands where water accumulates - its excess is harmful to the plant.
What soil does stevia need?
This aspect must be considered if you are interested in how to grow a plant. Stevia in terms of soil composition is not too picky - it can grow on different soils, the main thing is that they are not too saline. The ideal soil for it would be sandy substrates, to which organic substances are added. To create ideal conditions for seedlings, compost or humus should be added to chernozem in a 3: 1 ratio.
If the soil is too clay, a little sand should be added. In addition, when growing stevia at home, the use of ready-made soil mixtures is allowed. You can independently prepare the soil from two parts of sand and part of humus.
How to grow stevia from seeds?
You should be aware that this is not an easy task. Stevia seeds are very small - they do not exceed 4 mm in length and only 0.5 mm in width. Most items purchased in the store are often unsuitable for cultivation. Therefore, the seeds must be filled with water for an hour. Empty seeds will remain on the surface.
This plant has a seedling period of about two months, so the seeds are sown in April. Prepare containers (small plastic containers with lids are suitable for this) and soil for sowing. Make small indentations on the surface of the soil and place 2-3 seeds in each of them. Sprinkle them with a thin layer of soil (no more than 3 cm). Place seed containers under the lamp. Do not turn it off even at night in the early days. The air temperature in the room must be at least +25 ° C. After 7-10 days you will see the first sprouts. After that, the lids are removed from the containers. After three weeks, the backlight with a UV lamp is reduced to 15 hours a day.
When the seedlings have strong leaves, it should be thinned out by removing weak plants.
Cuttings
This is an easier way to grow a plant. Stevia perfectly reproduces vegetatively, but to use this method, you must have a mother plant at least two months old. A cutle is a part of a healthy, young shoot that has leaves and buds. They are harvested from healthy, well-developed plants. The best time for cutting cuttings is the period from mid-May to early June.
How to grow stevia from cuttings? The shoots are cut so that a stump with two to four leaves remains on the mother plant. In this case, by autumn, from the buds that are located in the axils of the leaves, 2-4 stems up to 80 cm long will grow. For rooting, the cuttings should have three to five internodes, the upper ones with leaves, and the lower ones should be removed.
Rooted cuttings in an enameled or glass dish with water or 1% sugar solution (1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water). Cover the jar with black material so that the sun's rays do not penetrate into it: the cuttings root better in the dark. On top of the jar, put a cardboard in which to make holes, and insert the cuttings into them.
It is necessary to make sure that the lower internode is in the water, and the leaves of its surface do not touch. Cuttings are covered with plastic wrap. Water should be changed every three days. To speed up rooting, spray Stevia leaves three times a day with water or a 1% sugar solution. If you keep the temperature in the room in the range of + 18-25 ° C, then in a week the roots will grow back. And when they reach 5-8 cm (usually in two weeks), the seedlings are planted in a greenhouse or in pots and for a week they keep the seedlings under a plastic wrap.
Keep the soil constantly moist until the cuttings root. Adult stevia accumulates glycoside in the sun. And young plants and unrooted cuttings die under its rays. Therefore, seedlings should be shaded with gauze.
Seedling Care
When your plants are still too small, they need to be watered very carefully, paying particular attention to soil moisture - the soil should not be too moist. It is ideal to organize lower watering - containers with seedlings are put in water for some time. The windowsill, where the seedlings are located, must be protected from drafts. Other domestic plants should be removed from it - stevia does not like neighbors. When the seedlings grow to 12 cm, they pinch the tops 3-4 cm - thanks to this procedure, the plants begin to branch.
If you want to grow stevia in an apartment, then the bushes are transplanted into separate pots with a diameter of about 10 cm.
Landing
It's time to figure out how to grow stevia in the country. So, you have fulfilled all the previous requirements and have grown healthy and strong seedlings. It must be understood that transplanting stevia into the ground is one of the most important points. Violation of the rules can nullify all your work. Before the plants move to the street, they should be hardened.
First, the seedlings are dived into separate cups, and then put out for several hours every day on the street. During such "walks" the weather should be sunny and warm. Every day the seedlings stay on the street longer. Landing is done after the threat of freezing frost has passed and the air warms up to +18 ° C during the day. For stevia, a well-lit sunny area is suitable.
Previously, the soil on it is flavored with compost. Plant seedlings, deepening them by about 8 cm. Between the bushes, the distance should be at least 40 cm. Pour the soil with warm water. About 1/3 of the stem, the plant needs to be hilled. For about a week the bed is covered with a film. Since the roots of Stevia are located almost at the surface, the soil around the plant should be mulched so that they do not dry out.
Care
Stevia care consists in regular loosening of the soil and top dressing once every two weeks. In autumn, when the temperature drops below +10 ° C, stevia should be removed to the greenhouse or transferred to the house until spring.
- Watering. Humidify the soil depending on the weather, but not more than four times a week. In this case, it is important to ensure that the soil is not waterlogged and not overdried. When growing stevia indoors, it is advisable to pour boiled water. After rain and each watering, it is necessary to loosen the soil around the bushes.
- Weeding. Talking about how to grow stevia, it is very important to consider this factor. Sweet grass does not tolerate neighbors at all. Carefully remove all weeds around the plants.
- Top dressing. The plant is responsive to fertilizing with nitrogen-containing fertilizers. It is carried out twice a month. In autumn, humus or compost is introduced under the bushes.
- Pruning. If you grow stevia in an apartment, the plant should be cut every six months so that the crown branches well. Bushes grown on the street, pinch only as necessary. It is very important from time to time to tear off part of the leaves so that the crown is constantly updated. To achieve greater productivity, flowers should be removed.
- Wintering. In the climatic conditions of the middle zone of our country, stevia does not tolerate winter, more often it dies. Gardeners recommend digging a plant for winter and bring it into the house. In the southern regions, stevia is left on the street, covered with a film.
Billet
In Central Russia, honey grass rarely reaches its maximum height - the climate is too harsh for it. Knowing how to grow stevia at home (in pots) and on a summer cottage, you can count on a good harvest four months after sowing the seeds. As a rule, its collection is carried out in early autumn - the plant during this period is actively preparing for wintering and intensively stores stevioside in the leaves.
Cut the stems of the plant and tear off all the leaves. They are dried in the fresh air under a canopy or under a UV lamp. It is very important that the drying does not take longer than twelve hours. Otherwise, the leaves will not be so sweet. Dried leaves are stored for up to three years in sealed glass jars or paper bags.
Beneficial features
We examined in detail how to grow stevia, but still have not talked about the beneficial properties of this plant. We will try to fill this gap. The unique chemical composition determines the benefits of the plant. Stevia, more precisely, its leaves, contains more than 50 substances useful to the human body:
- mineral salts (phosphorus and potassium, calcium and magnesium, iron and zinc, manganese and cobalt);
- vitamins P, A, E, C;
- amino acids;
- beta carotene;
- pectins;
- essential oils.
The uniqueness of this herb lies in the combination of trace elements and vitamins with low calorie content and high sweetness. Drinks and products with it are used to control body weight, especially with diabetes.
In Japan, this medicinal plant has long been used as a sweetener. Stevia in the USA and Canada is known as a dietary supplement. Scientists have proven that honey grass shows excellent results in the treatment of hypertension and obesity. Successfully used stevia in nutrition and cosmetology. In addition, it is widely used as a therapeutic and prophylactic agent for diseases of the heart and blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract and to strengthen the immune system.
With regular intake of tea from stevia leaves, blood cholesterol levels are significantly reduced. It is useful to rinse the decoction of the leaves of this plant oral cavity with gingivitis. This natural antiseptic helps with tonsillitis. Stevia helps to cure abscesses and accelerates wound healing. It is added to salads and pastries, and fragrant teas are prepared.
Popular recipes
There are not too many ways to prepare medicinal formulations based on this plant - stevia has appeared in our country relatively recently. We bring to your attention the most popular of them.
Tea
It is with tea that sweet grass is most often consumed . To do this, grind the leaves of the plant and add to the tea leaves in equal proportions. To improve the taste, you can add a little cinnamon or mint.
Vodka extract
Mix whole or crushed leaves with vodka (1:10). The tool is infused for a day, then filtered through a sieve. This extract, diluted in water, can be used to gargle.
Stevia Syrup
To make syrup, you must first prepare the infusion. In a pre-prepared gauze bag, pour 20 g of grass, place it in a thermos and pour boiling water (0.5 l). After 12 hours, the infusion is drained. Then the leaves are again infused for 8 hours in 250 ml of boiling water. Combine both infusions, bring the mass to a thickening in a water bath.
When a drop of syrup does not spread, the liquid can be removed from the fire. This syrup enhances immunity and is a bactericidal agent. It should be consumed with tea or with water (in a glass of 4-5 drops).
We told you how to grow stevia. As you can see, this is not difficult. It is important to know only some of its features and small secrets of growing. If you follow simple rules, you will get a great alternative to mint or lemon balm and an excellent sugar substitute.