Seeds are notoriously infertile and slow to germinate. They MUST be very fresh. If you're lucky, it could take a couple of months before they germinate - even more sometimes.

As with all seeds which come with a little 'parachute' attached, stevia seeds should be sown very shallow - even not covering them at all, but gently tamping them down with the palm of your hand so make sure they are in contact with the potting medium. Gently water in, and keep them in a warm place with plenty of NATURAL light (about 20-25C for soil temperature).

Any seed-starting commercial potting mix will do. Stevia generally prefers a pH of 4-5 but will grow well on soils up to 9 pH.

Last year I bought STEVIA plants from HD and grew them. They did fine. I let one of them go to flowers and seed. It did.
After maturing, I hanged it upside down all winter. In ealy February I got some of the tip of braches. I looked, I could hardly see the seeds.
I was not holding my breath but I sowed few of them, inside,along with other seeds anyway.
SURPRISE ! stevias were the first to germinate. But their growth has been vey slow. Right now they have 4 leave, and are about 1/4 tall.
I think, the seeds being so tiny, have to be fresh or well preserved to be viable.

My last year's stevia plants, hopfuly will come back. But they might not,
as we have had a relatively severe cold winter down here.

daisy: Awesome, thanks! I will do as you suggest. I have a perfect place to germinate them (my south facing windows where most of my seedlings are at now). I'll use my Jiffy mix, since it contains peat which should keep the pH close to optimal.

- Steve

Steve, please remember that the light coming through a glass window is not natural sunlight? The glass actually filters out some of the rays a plant needs (and you won't ask me which rays, will you?? I'm not a scientist!).

Cyrus, you've done well to propagate stevia! I've never had any luck, either with seeds or cuttings. Sigh.

Daisy, If you rememer, I even did not know how stevia seed should looks like.
I had the impression that you have to rub them in the palm of your hand
to get a seed like basil seed. But you reminded me of the parachut shape.
Since my dried plant has also lots of tiny leaves and flower petal, or whatever,
It was hard for me to see those tiny seeds.
Anyway, I think I was lucky and maybe my seeds were fresh. Also I planted them under natural light florescens. I also had tomatoes, various peppers, eggplants in the same tray. Tomatoes
were next, then some peppers, then some eggplants to germinate. I think stevia germinated in about two weeks.

daisy: Actually, with you saying that, I am going to ask you to explian further, please. ;-) My seedlings always do excellent in sunny windowsills, so I am very curious as to the difference between it & sunlight outside. It does make some sense that the glass would filter some of the rays, but I imagine the plants would still easily be able to get the light they need & it would still be from the sun, or else all mine wouldn't look so beautiful now & would be dead...lol.

You'll have to read and digest the information at the link below!

Another reason plants shouldn't be grown near a window is the danger of the leaves burning. Glass, on a hot day, can get mighty hot - and there's such a thing as freeze-burn, too. Seedlings might do OK, but it's not a good thing to have the plants touching the glass.

Here is a link that might be useful: UV light

I will read the link tomorrow, but I have years of proof to the contrary. ;-) I do agree about the leaves not touching the glass part though.

clear window common glass, I do not think , will filter sun light.
A prizm is made out of glass and all wave lengths, full spectrum
will pass through it. this I know from optical physics.
But clear glass will reflect a percentage of light waves, and absorb some. But most will pass through.

Well, daisy, wish me luck! I am sowing my Stevia seeds here in a few minutes. =)

Tn, I must be mistaken but I remember seeing pictures of leggy plants but not any that were nice and stocky (sturdy). Seems like I recall a dialog about this in another forum. There was SOMEBODY that was convinced that spindly plants were ok. It might not have been you.

Rhizo: That all depends on the persons opinion who's talking. =) Spindly plants, IMO are very noticeably unstable. They would require several stakes/ties just to keep the plant from falling over by itself, etc., etc.. (Example:

). It is quite normal for a very healthy tomato plant to be a bit leggy (and even grown that way on purpose for deeper root development). Simply pot it up 4-6 inches when going into its final home (ground or container) and it will have a deep healthy root system and produce just as fine as any other tomato plant. Many many people overreact and take legginess to seriously; as some wickedly harmful disease or something. From what I've heard on the many threads about it from many different people, it's nothing but a matter of opinion (to a certain extent...see picture above). When someone calls my plants leggy now, I simply thank them for their kind compliment. =)

Anyway, let's try to stay on the subject of the thread, shall we? My Stevia was sown 4 days ago. I will let y'all know how it goes.

- Steve

Hi Steve, How did your seeds do? I have some fresh ones I want to try from last years plants.