Last edited by CloCkWeRX on November 11, 2026. View history
Stevia
Stevia
How to sow stevia: Direct seed indoors, cuttings, or cloned seedlings
Sun requirement for stevia: Plant in Full Sun
Stevia is tender, semi-tropical shrub in the Asteraceae (Sunflower) family that is native to Brazil and Paraguay. It is grown for it's sweet leaves, which can be used fresh or dried and ground into a powder also known as Stevia. Dried leaves are sweeter than fresh, and the powder is used as a sugar substitute. Stevia contains compounds that are 200-300 times sweeter than sugar, but pass through the digestive system without being broken down and absorbed. The plant has weak, floppy stems, slender, oblong leaves, and tubular, white, hermaphrodite flowers. Stevia does best in humid, wet environments. It is a perennial in regions where the temperature range is 21 to 43° C, but can be grown as an annual or in containers in colder regions. Stevia cannot survive temperatures below 7° C. The entire plant can be harvested in the fall once flower buds have appeared but not opened (the plant has a bitter aftertaste after flowers have opened). Cooler temperatures and shorter days increase the sweetness of the leaves.
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Stevia facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
60cm × 60cmRow Spacing
25cmCrop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For stevia, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 15°C and a shortest growing cycle of 55 days at its best temperature, about 495 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your stevia will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow stevia
Sunniness
Planted from
Photos
Photos
Stevia crops
Video
Where stevia grow
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What people are saying about stevia
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Who's planted stevia
- At_Home_In_My_Garden AHITG_ Herb Bed · Brisbane, Queensland
- 15dozentimes Indoor
- piranha Front Garden · East Coast, Central...
- jasond 4x8 raised bed by honeysuckle · Austin, TX
Stevia harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 55 to 270 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) Bertoni
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Asterales Compositae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -6 °C |
| Life form | herb, sub-shrub |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about stevia
Resources outside Growstuff.
