Stevia Seeds

Does anyone know what stevia seeds look like or have a picture. My plants have blooms but the spent blooms look kinda feathery if you know what I mean.
Jan...

I just got some in a trade. They look like tiny little dandilion seeds. So the seed part should be underneath the feathery part of your spend blooms; just strip them down and look. LMK if you still need me to post a picture.

Thanks

I got some seeds to from a trade. Are they easy to grow?
:) Donna

I don't know! I sowed somefor the first time a couple of days ago, just pressed them into the top of the soil in a pot in my sunny & fairly warm morning room, moistened & covered with plastic wrap.

According to Plant Files, it's a pretty easy plant to grow as long as you keep it sunny & moist, and it will overwinter as a house plant. There didn't seem to be any information on germinating seed, so I'm winging it for now. If this doesn't work, I'll search the seed catalogs for culture information or try to get advice from my trader or another person who's grown it....

Good idea. Duh...I should be asking the trader I got the seeds from....lol.
Thanks, Donna

I'm not a good distiller. lol Didn't like using the crushed leaves so now I buy my stevia in a bottle from health food store.
Inanda

I just emailed the guy who sent me the seeds, and I asked him to post a reply to this thread or to email me & I'd post it

JillI
I got your message and will let you know what I know about growing stevia.The plants that I got my seeds from were started last spring from seeds I bought from Walmart.I planted about 25 seeds (2 pkgs)in a plug tray filled with a mix of peat moss vermiculite and coir(coconut fiber) I had them on a heat mat with the thermostat set for 75 degrees.The temperature of the mat probably varied between 70 and 80 degrees as the mat temp varies with the temp of my unheated greenhouse.I only ended up with 7 or 8 plants but I think I washed a lot of them away because I had them with my pepper plants and just watered them with a regular watering wand.I would recomend a foggit nozzle or a spray bottle.
This year,before I offered to trade seeds I put about 20 seeds in a paper towel to test germination. I didn't do a very good job of keeping them moist.I tried to keep them warm on the gas range over the pilot light.They dried out several times.I finaly read somebodies post about putting them in a baggie.Big improvement.Even with this lousy care I got four to grerminate and have them growing in 4 inch pots.I Did another test after I set up a propagation box to root a bunch of miniature rose cuttings.I had a heat mat underneath and a steam vaporizer hooked to a thermostat to keep up humidity and this batch got about 50% germination in a paper towel in a baggie.I think the bottom heat helped but I never tried growing them without it so I can't be sure.
I grew a lot of Stevia about 7 years ago in Phoenix from plants I bought from Richters in Canada I grew them in pots filled with peat vermiculite and sand.I watered them with a complete hydroponic nutrient formula and had them under shade cloth.The plants I grew this year in Snowflake ,much cooler climate,were inside a greenhouse in pots in peat,vermiculite,and sand.I still use hydroponic nutrient to water all my container plants.I have a computer program that allows me to plug in whatever fertilizers I have available and build a ballanced formula including all trace elements.This is way cheaper than buying commercial hydro mix.I am certain this is not the only way to propagate or grow stevia it's just the way I did it and it worked.
John

Thanks for the detailed information, John! That's exactly what we needed to know!

I'll try sprouting them in damp paper towel (in a baggie), rather than direct sowing, and I'll get out my heating pad or at least put them over a heat vent.

One follow-up question for you, if you're still following this thread -- do you recall about how long the seeds took to germinate?

Sounds like you have a wonderful set-up for your gardening efforts, BTW.... wow.

Thanks!!
Jill

Did you surface sow or cover with planting medium?

My first ones I just pressed into the surface of the soil. The seeds looked pretty tiny & delicate, so I didn't think they needed covering, and it doesn't seem like they need darkness to germinate. They're not up yet, but I'll let you know. John seemed to say that germinating on damp paper towel worked best, so I'm trying that method with another pinch of seed.

I am not sure if they germinate better in paper towels than in soil as I didn't try to start them in soil this year and my memory and record keeping are not what they should be.I had several of the seeds in the towels embed their roots and I killed them in transfer so I think It probably would be beter to root in potting soil so you don't have to move them.I think the way you did it with plastic cover will probably work well.Sorry I don't know how long it took to germinate.Maybe one of you guys with better record keeping skills can keep track and post info in the plant files.
John

I've had tomato & pepper seeds embed their roots in the paper towel like that, and I generally don't try to remove them. I just cut out a the little scrap of paper towel that has the seed & the roots and plant the whole thing....

I put a date on my Stevia baggie, so I'll let you know when/if I see germination.

I sowed 11 Stevia seeds on 1-1-05. Six sprouted on 1-6, 1 on 1-8, and 1 on 1-9. They are between 3/4-2" high today.

I use sand instead of paper towels to germinate seeds. I had the same problem getting them out of the paper towel. Also, you have to unfold the towel to see what's going on. With the sand you just scoop them out & plant them in starter mix.

Hope that helps some.
Prism

The stevia I surface-sowed in the pots is up! Took 6 days. I'll take care in watering, maybe just bottom water, so as not to wash them out, as they are very tiny....

Congratulations, Critterologist!

Prism

BTW, I'm liking the sand idea. I'm not sure how to go about it, though.... maybe a layer of damp sand at the bottom of a little tupperware container so the lid keeps the moisture in?

That will work, critterologist. I used cut up styro to-go containers. I put the sand in & sealed it in a zip lock baggie.
Here's a link where I described it:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/479410/

I just started using petri dishes. I had seen a thread on gel propagation, which made me think of high school, starting mold or something in petri dishes. I talked to my husband about the petri dishes & he found some on eBay & ordered them for me as a surprise. But then I thought it would be too much trouble to mix up the gel, so I tried the sand. They work really good. They aren't very deep so you have to get the sprouts out pretty quickly. But I like them.

That will work, critterologist. I used cut up styro to-go containers. I put the sand in & sealed it in a zip lock baggie.
Here's a link where I described it:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/479410/

I just started using petri dishes. I had seen a thread on gel propagation, which made me think of high school, starting mold or something in petri dishes. I talked to my husband about the petri dishes & he found some on eBay & ordered them for me as a surprise. But then I thought it would be too much trouble to mix up the gel, so I tried the sand. They work really good. They aren't very deep so you have to get the sprouts out pretty quickly. But I like them.

Thanks, prism! I like the petri dish idea.... :-)

I checked my stevia seeds on the paper towel this morning, and two had germinated since 2/3. So far, that's about the same germination time & rate (about 1 in 12) for damp paper towel in baggie & surface sowing in covered pots. Bottom heat would probably help, but since I only need a few plants at the moment, I'm good.

Now I've gone & done it.
They were doing so good & I decided they might need some fertilizer.
So I diluted 50% & feed them.
I think I might not have watered them 1st.
Now 3 of them look kind of brownish. : (

Hopefully I won't kill the rest.