|
I'm
going to assume that if
you're reading this page, you're already in possession of a mature stevia mother plant
to harvest your cuttings from. If you don't, you can always get plants
or seeds from your local gardening center.
Okay, let's get to it! For optimal results, stevia cuttings are best
taken in the second half
of summer. To harvest stevia plant cuttings properly, do
the following: take your garden scissors out and carefully cut off a
small branch of leaves of about 4 to 5 inches (12 to 15cm) long. There
should be 4 or 5 leaves on there as well. If the leaves are very long,
you should snip off their tips to about half of their original size,
in order to stimulate root growth.
In
all, you can safely detach up to a dozen of these cuttings from a
single mother plant, but be careful not
to remove more than 30% in total. Pruning the mother plant
is beneficial, even when you don't intend to take cuttings from it,
because it will result in boosting the plant into further growth.
 You can
grow the cuttings in a pot of course, but they will root faster
and have more chance of survival if you put them in a jar of water for
about three weeks. Small roots should have started to form by then, and
you can transfer the cuttings to a bigger pot, to give the roots some
space. The use of a fertiliser as a catalyst might give your stevia
plant an extra edge.
Keep
the plant cuttings indoors for the time being. Sweet leaf plants,
especially baby plants, are fragile and should be kept inside the house until spring
if you're living in a mild climate. Even inside, they will need a lot
of warmth, light and water in order to survive the winter. With a bit
of luck, you will have a new mother plant next spring. Fingers crossed!
Once
the stevia plant is mature, you have a number of options on how to
proceed: you can either choose to harvest the stevia
herb in early autumn, or you can let it grow flowers so it
will produce new seeds.
|
