Just so you know the spammer posted on garden junk also. Anyway I planted some but it did not weather too well.But with this winter well you know. Was not prolific like mint that is for sure,at least for me!
I do not know if that is because it may be an annual, actually I do not know much about it so am conducting my own tests.I do buy a product called Sweet Leaf,comes in a green box (stevia in powdered forms in tiny little packs). I love it on strawberries since it seems to just exagerate the fruits sweetness without tasting chemical. I grew it with my other herbs against a west stucco wall in a contained area of VERY RICH moist soil.BUT I do not know if that is what it wants. I try to find out where things come from and then mimic that area if possible and unfortunately I do not have that info either,it being so new.I do not know how they turn it from a green mint like leaf into powder and that would be interesting. My grandson and i use it in hot water with mint leaves.
Its definitely NOT diet coke LOL but interesting!
So the answer is it grew, but not that well. that doesnt mean it won't do better for you.
Good luck with the grandsons journey.

FYI, it is not a spam, I contacted GW. :o)

I found some plants at Wally World last summer and bought one just because I was curious... It seems to like semi-shade in moist soil. I do the 'harvest' by keeping the plant pruned down and drying the prunings in the microwave. Then I strip the prunings of their leaves and grind the leaves to a powder in my little blender (Bullet-type), but I think a mortar and pestle would work much better. I don't let the plant flower because the leaves seem to get bitter if I do. The powder tastes sweet, but very - um, green (well, much as you would expect powdered leaves to taste!) .... it's great in tea but I wouldn't put it on my cereal.
By the way, by the beginning of fall the plant had sort of disappeared, but started growing again with the cooler temps. Throughout the winter, it has come into its own again and is once more a lush, full plant. I've just watered it with 20-20-20 occasionally.

Hope this helps!
- Robin

As Katkin said, it wasn't spam. Tamara has been the moderator on our forums for several years. I know sometimes she probably doesn't make choices that you would like her to make (regarding moved or removed topics) but she's also our guardian and has helped resolve problems. If it has her name on it, it's a valid offer.

Kate

Thanks, Golden and Robin. As usual, everyone is super-helpful! I ordered the Crazy Sweet stevia from Richter's in Canada, so won't get it for a few more weeks. If I recall, the plant originates in Brazil - or somewhere down there - so I would think our climate would be similar. My personal corcern would be the humidity, naturally. Will try to do ongoing posts on its progress - or lack of!
;o) cora

A few years ago I could buy stevia in liquid form (small bottle like eye-drops)from NutriSystems. Has anyone seen this on store shelves?

Stevia is available at Whole Foods and Chamberlins. In liquid form, it's about $16 for a bottle, but that bottle lasts a long, long time. It takes about 4 drops per glass of iced tea or cup of hot tea. Any more than that and it can have a bitter aftertaste.

Stevia powder is available on the diabetic foods aisle of my neighborhood Publix. It's in a green box, top shelf, by the diabetic cookies, in individual packets like artificial sweeteners and table sugar. Hopefully you can find some in your area. It's great stuff!

Also really good is "Z Sweet". It is made from Erythritol, another natural sweetener. It's more granular, like sugar, and can be used in nearly equal amounts as sugar. I bought my bottle of Z Sweet from Whole Foods. It's also available in individual packets.

I'm not sure how any of these work for baking, I usually just use these to sweeten hot/cold drinks, fresh cut fruit and plain yogurt.

My belly cannot tolerate Splenda, but I have no problems with Stevia or Z Sweet. I hope this helps!

Thanks for all the good info, Mel. Will look for these items and pass along to my son. So far, he's been able to control the diabetes with diet and exercise alone.

I have used stevia for years in packets and in bulk for cooking and adding to foods (experimenting along with my wife).

I finally ordered some seeds from a supplier after a lot of research.

Also, recently I found a couple stevia plants at Lowe's and just planted them (Feb 2 in Tampa 13 miles from the Gulf coast) I have no idea of the variety since the label did not say.

What makes stevia work is the steviosides in it. It must be processed in order to minimize the bitter taste or other flavors in the leaf. You can brew the leaves into a tea but thsy may not appeal to many.

The best tasting stevia on the market can be ordered from Emperor's Herbologist (I have nothing to do with them but have sampled a lot of brands. Their site explains why theirs is so good.

http://www.emperorsherbologist.com/

Though native to Peru, stevia can be grown in Floria but I do not yet have the experience to give any tips yet. I believe it may work well as small hedge plant.

Here is a link to a great site on growing stevia with instructions and they also do sell quality seeds.

http://prairieoakpublishing.com/index.php?pr=Stevia_Gardening

Hope this helps.

When using stevia as a sweetener, you want the product with the highest % of steviosides (over 95%). There is a slight aftertaste but better than the dangerous aspartame or saccharine. There are no calories in stevia and it has a variety of health benefits in addition to being great for diabetics or those merely trying to cut calories in foods they like. You can bake with it.

It is hard to dissolve sometimes and is so sweet that in the packets they add cellulose or sometimes rice malt to bulk it up. You can make your own liquid for a fraction of the price of ordering the liquid.

I found it dissolves more easily in a teaspoon of warmed oil than in water. So I often buy natural peanut butter that has only a little salt and peanuts in the ingredients and heat it in the microwave and add a few shakes of stevia powder to the jar and stir it in. It's wonderful.

hi
Have been growing it for a couple of years now though I find it rather easy to grow not very productive. i wanted to use it fresh to sweeten a pot of tea. Finds this takes about a cup of chopped leaves .5 plants can only produce that much about once a month.. I find the entire plant somewhat sweet but the leaves and flowers strongest.
There are several different plants in the family one of which grows into a shrub. Would probably be far more productive but have been unable to locate it.
gary

I also have grown stevia here, along with my other herbs. I never actually used it, though. It was just an interesting plant in the herb garden, and seemed to grow fairly easily. But I am VERY interested in using the products available now, and thanks to everyone who posted info on them. Nativemel (*waving a hello to you*), thanks for the ideas on locations. I have no trouble with Splenda, but would like to reduce my usage of it by finding another product to add to my arsenal. I don't like aspartame or any of the older sweeteners, so I had high hopes when I saw the ads for Truvia. I'm glad to know stevia is available in several forms. So informative, this place!!

As for Tamara's offer, I think she felt gardeners would be especially interested in this product, and I'm happy she chose our group for this offer. I hope some of you took her up on it. I know I would have. And I agree with Kate that she does a pretty good job of helping us out here, so for those who didn't know who she was before, you will know next time that she is legit. She helps us when we have problems with the occasional nasty poster, and for that alone, I say THANKS!!

Marcia

I've been growing stevia for a couple years now. I originally got 4 rooted cuttings by mail order.

I understand that it is native to South America and is a relative of the mint family but obviously not nearly so vigorous as mint. Many varieties are perennial in the right climate though the root systems may loose vigor as the plants age. Taking cuttings each year is supposed to help keep you going.

I've heard it is best to grow cuttings from a plant you know to be nice and sweet since growing from seed may produce plants that are not as sweet.

As I said, I've been growing it for a couple years now (when I started growing it, you could not buy stevia sweeteners in the grocery store, only in health food stores as a supplement, but I've heard that the FDA has approved it now.) I have not been nearly as successful at growing it as I had hoped though I still have some growing. Some of it is in the Aquaponics system as small cuttings that seem to have taken. Any that I had left outdoors over the freeze has died back to the ground but seems to be sprouting some new growth now, I'm hoping the new growth will be more vigorous since the plants have been pretty slow to produce enough leaves for my needs.

Here is how I make my own liquid sweetener from it.
I harvest by pruning the plants back by about 1/2, it is best to do it just as flower buds are forming but before the flowers open. I dry these in the dehydrator. (Often I will take some cuttings from the best looking stems by cutting off most of the leaves and sticking the stems in the Aquaponic beds.) Once the leaves are dry I will strip them off the stems (I crunch them up some but I don't really powder them) and put a cup of them along with a cup of water into a french press coffee cup. I let that sit for a day or two. Then I press and drain out reserving the sweet water. Discard the spent leaves. Put another cup of dried leaves in the french press and pour the reserved sweet water over the new dried leaves. (So you are making the liquid double strong.) Let that sit for another day or so. Press and put the liquid and pour into a convenient bottle to keep in the fridge. I use about a teaspoon of the liquid in my coffee depending on how sweet the batch came out.

Stevia does have a very "green" taste to it which takes some getting used to but not so bad.

For hot teas one can simply put some dried leaves into the tea strainer along with the other tea ingredients.

How strong or sweet the stevia is will not only depend on the particular plants the leaves came from but also when the leaves were harvested since the leaves are supposed to be at their sweetest just before flowering.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

Marcia, waving back at ya! I'm so glad to have checked this thread again.

Yes, the FDA recently approved the use of Stevia as a sweetener. If you find older packaging of Stevia products, you will notice that it describes Stevia as a nutritional supplement rather than sugar substitute. I'm guessing the sugar industry, the Nutrasweet and the Splenda people had something to do with this delayed approval.

There is a small company currently making Stevia sweetened sodas, and I've tried all the flavors they offer. Only the lemon-lime version is tolerable to my tastebuds. I certainly feel that they need to improve on their recipe, and they claim to have done so in the past.

I'm afraid Coke and Pepsi will have the upper hand and push that small business right out of the market with their new Stevia sweetened products.

Thanks to all of you for the great Stevia tips!

Just a heads up, I saw stevia plants at HD the other day, in the big herb plantings display.