One Sweetie Sixteen stevia plant in a 12-inch (30 cm) pot on my sunny back patio handed me more sweet leaves than I knew what to do with. I dried jars of them and still had stems to spare by fall. I treated that plant as an annual and carried the pot indoors before the first frost. So yes, you can grow stevia at home with no trouble, either in a garden bed or a container that gets plenty of light. The plant asks for less than most people expect, and a single one feeds a whole household of tea drinkers.
Stevia wants the same basics most herbs want. Give it full sun, well-drained soil, and a pH between 6.7 and 7.2. The plant stays small at a mature size of 1 to 2 ft (30 to 60 cm), so it fits a tight space. A balcony rail, a back step, or a corner of a raised bed all work. Growing stevia in containers works just as well as planting it in the ground, and a pot makes the cold-weather move much easier. I keep mine potted for that reason alone, so I never have to dig up roots in October.
Here is the catch that trips up most people. Stevia is a tender perennial, hardy only in USDA zones 10 to 11. If your winters drop below freezing, the plant will not survive outdoors. You have two choices. You can treat it as an annual and start fresh each spring, or you can keep the pot alive over winter on a bright south-facing windowsill. Both routes give you a steady supply of leaves, so the right pick depends on how much fuss you want in the cold months. I find the annual route easier, but I have wintered a pot indoors more than once when the plant was doing well.
Container growing makes both paths simple. A pot lets you chase the sun across your yard and lift the whole plant indoors when the cold sets in. Growing stevia indoors over winter takes the most light you can give it. A south window helps, and a cheap grow light fills the gap on short, gray days when a windowsill alone runs short.
Good stevia plant care comes down to a short routine you can keep up with. None of it takes long, and the plant forgives the odd missed day.
- Light: Give the plant 6 or more hours of sun each day so the leaves build up their sweet compounds.
- Water: Keep the soil moist but never soggy, since stevia roots rot fast in standing water.
- Feed: Use a light, balanced fertilizer every 4 to 6 weeks during the growing season.
- Pinch: Snip the growing tips often to keep the plant bushy and to delay flowering, which turns the leaves bitter.
- Bring the pot indoors before the first frost to protect a plant you want to overwinter.
Now for the part that saves you the most grief. Start with one bought plant, not a seed packet. Stevia seed germination is low and slow, and a tray of bare soil will test your patience. I tried seeds my first year and got a sparse handful of sprouts for the effort. A single nursery start skips that fight and gives you sweet leaves the same season.
Once that plant takes hold, you can make more for free. Snip a 4-inch (10 cm) cutting from a healthy stem, strip the lower leaves, and set it in moist soil. Roots form in a couple of weeks, and you turn one plant into a whole shelf. Buy one start, then multiply it by cuttings, and you will have all the home-grown sweetener your kitchen can use.
Read the full article: Stevia Plant: Grow, Harvest, and Use It
