stevia?

[nightshade]

Okay I got a setvia plant this last summer but got no info with it. So here is my question are they perennial? I am in zone 5 and thought that having a sweetener plant to offset all the lugar we use would be nice.

 

[digitS']

Hey nightshade !

Well, you may be able to learn from my mistakes with stevia . . . you'd think a "steve" would know better . . .

I started a half dozen or more plants. Trying the green leaves I thought :/ , "These taste like spinach or something! Sweet spinach?"

Anyway, I now understand that the leaves are usually used dry and probably lose much of that "green" flavor. No, they absolutely can't survive a zone 5 winter. Unless, you have it indoors - then, I don't know about its 2nd season.

Steve

 

[Lothiriel]

I've read that stevia is perennial in zones 9-11 and annual elsewhere.

 

[lesa]

I thought it would be fun to plant one- bought a transplant. Had it in the ground for about a week, and the cutworms chopped it right down! So much for that idea! Good luck!

 

[hoodat]

I tried stevia and it grew all right but I didn't like the taste. To me it leaves the same aftertaste you used to get from sacharine.

 

[Emma]

I'm in zone 7B. I've had stevia survive some winters, and die in some winters. I will be planting stevia from seeds this year, saved from earlier years. Will see how they do. I grow mine in pots. Stevia plants seem to have the needs and vulnerabilities as mint, in my experience.

 

[catjac1975]

I'm in zone 7B. I've had stevia survive some winters, and die in some winters. I will be planting stevia from seeds this year, saved from earlier years. Will see how they do. I grow mine in pots. Stevia plants seem to have the needs and vulnerabilities as mint, in my experience.

I have had stevia survive many zone 6 winters. Then it just disappeared. I think it was just reseeding itself.