Will trade for other annual/perrenial seeds or SASE. If you are interested please d - mail me. :o)
Robbie
CLOSED: Have: Stevia, Sweet Herb of Paraguay seeds
I have heard of Stevia and wondered how to use it. Do you actually use it or just grow it?
You are not far from my old stomping grounds. I was raised in Bedico between Madisonville and Ponchatoula. I moved down the bayou South of Houma when I was grown and lived there until We moved up here. I call the bayou home but our family is all still around Bedico, Robert and Ponchatoula.
Do you raise any strawberries?
I bet strawberries and stevia would work well together!!!
Do you mean grow well together?
Yes, Both eating together and growing together. You see Strawberries growing with clover all the time clover is also very sweet I don't know if it has ever been harvested or used as a sweetener but it is very sweet. Stevia grows tall and spreads much like clover does. They may make great companion plants as well as culinary friends.
Robin
Cajunky,
I've seen the stevia leaves dried and sold in the fruit markets here. From what I understand you dry the leaves and add them to beverages, (tea, coffee,etc) to sweeten. That's what I plan on doing with it anyway to replace artificial sweetner I have to use. Diabetes runs high on both mine and my dh family. :o)
I don't grow strawberries but that was my grandfather's passion. He grew large fields and sold them to the locals. I want to try them one day but don't have a garden large enough to do so yet.
arejay59,
Strawberries are grown so early here I don't think it work - I don't think they can take the cold.
Strawberries cant take the cold you mean? You are in 8b right I am in 5 we grow the best strawberries here and they are gone by early July it is too hot. My Stevia flowered right up until The first of November. I am going to give it a try I don't have a lot of strawberry growing field but I will let you know what I find out.
How cold can stevia take it there? I've been keeping my seedlings I started in a greenhouse when it dropped to freezing because I thought they were tender like a tropical?? This is my first time growing them.
This message was edited Feb 27, 2009 2:27 PM
Well there was light frost in October and November not freezing. I wont know for a little while longer if anything returns from what was left out. I don't expect it that why I am planting more now. But I planted one plant last year. I ended up with a quart of dried Stevia. I finished harvesting it Just before the snow and there was a good handful left at that time.
No strawberries can take the cold I didn't know how much cold the stevia could take. In Louisiana we start June bearing strawberries in Oct/Nov and grow them thru the winter.
So stevia doesn't make any kind of fruit but it's the leaves you use? How exactly do you use them? Can you actually eat them?
Stevia is in the chrysanthemum family. From what I've read you can consume the ground leaves - that their are recipe books on the market for it. It is also used for medical purposes in Latin America and the Orient to :
stimulate alertness and counter fatigue; facilitate digestion and gastrointestinal functions; regulate blood glucose levels; nourish the liver, pancreas and spleen; help the body sustain a feeling of vitality and well-being and external application for blemishes, as a mouth wash to prevent tooth decay.
There are various other applications on the net when you google it also.
I bought seed for stevia last year. One seed germinated then died. Is it usually that difficult to get started or did I mess up somehow? I would love to try again. Suggestions on how you guys started it?
Hi Pam,
I surfaced sowed them in a peat pot then enclosed the pot in a plastic bag and placed it on a heat mat. They sprouted within a week or so. I sowed 10 seeds as a trial and 6 has survived so far. If you need more seeds d - mail me your address and I will send you some more seeds to try. :o)
This message was edited Feb 28, 2009 12:04 AM