Hydroponic Experiments with Stevia
In the first season with stevia plants at the prototype house,
the team found that one square meter of growing space is
all that is required for the sweetener needs of one person.
This allows for harvesting six to eight springs of stevia
each day, and the three-inch springs can be used with other
herbs for daily tea. The herbal teas are served hot and
replace sugar beverages such as soft drinks, fruit juices, and
other sweetened beverages. As stevia, like most herbs, is
calorie-free, using stevia as the replacement for sweetness
eliminated the daily 28 teaspoons of sugar, or 450 calories.
“
IN THE FIRST season with stevia plants at the
prototype house, the team found that one square
meter of growing space is all that is required for
the sweetener needs of one person.”
Stevia can be grown from seed, but like some herbs, it
is difficult to germinate and slow to grow, so the other
option is purchasing plants from a plant nursery. The
stevia plant is a perennial that can live for several years
in a hydroponic system. For the project, stevia is grown in
hydroponic culture using our bloom formula, which is a
reduced nitrogen modified Steiner formula. Their plants
are now about a foot tall after six months of growth and
harvest, and they can grow to about three feet tall. When
that happens, one square meter will hold about four plants.
Also, if growing outdoors, stevia is a tropical plant and
needs a frost-free environment, so winter growth requires
climate control. Individual plants can be placed in 12-inch
diameter pots and grown indoors as decorative plants.
Switching from Sugar to Stevia
According to studies, the average North American is getting
about 60 per cent of their daily sweeteners from beverages,
so switching to stevia-sweetened beverages could reduce
sugar intake by more than half. Baked goods are also
a leading source of refined sugar consumption. In most
recipes, dried or fresh stevia can replace sugar. The need
for sugar in baked goods is further reduced by replacing
flour with sweet potato. About 25 per cent of flour can
usually be exchanged with sweet potato, further reducing
the needs for sweetener.
In the US, the whole stevia leaf is not yet allowed in
processed food. However, it is legal for homeowners to grow
and use stevia for their own use. Naturally, the $97-billion
sugar industry has fought the introduction of stevia, so it is
not yet a serious marketplace competitor here in the US. In
Japan, however, it is widely used. And while stevia doesn’t
necessarily have verified direct diet-related medical
benefits, by using it in place of sugar, the average person
can remove 450 calories a day from their diet, equal to a
pound of excess weight every week.
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Maximum Yield