Hi folks,
    This is the continuing saga of my experiences with stevia, that
    super sweet low-cal sugar substitute.
    My first plant, already weakened by insects and an inhospitable
    environment when my sister gave it to me, pooped out forthwith.
    Last summer, my sis got me another one, and it was a revelation.
    First off, it was more green than brown. :-) And it rooted very
    easily. I gave away numerous rooted cuttings, and kept the mother
    plant and several cuttings for myself.
    Then problems began to occur. The edges of the leaves turned all
    black, followed shortly by the rest of the leaf. All the cuttings
    but one failed to thrive, then died. I kept examining the plants,
    trying to determine what was wrong. Once I saw tiny black particles
    that could have been mistaken for dirt, but were much too shiny, on
    the undersides of the leaves. My summer hort oil was on loan; so I
    used Pam spray temporarily. If anything, it had a negative effect.
    Then our furnace came on in mid-November. (Till then we used a wood
    stove.)  I also got back my hort oil and applied it to the two
    surviving plants. That did the trick! Today both plants have BRIGHT
    green foliage, not the stippled wishy-washy green that I thought
    was normal for Stevia. The mother plant will be harvested in another
    month for more cuttings when sunlight has made the plants stronger.
    My Johnny's Select Seeds catalogue remarks that stevia is a bit of a
    fussy plant. So much for my naive expectations that it was
    exceptionally easy to grow, as one poster here claimed. Maybe in HIS
    climate, but here it dislikes cool, moist conditions (as in my
    woodstove heated house.) But it does like moist part of the time. I
    keep mine in a south-facing window where it gets all the sun
    available, overtop a heat register. And I wait till the plants are
    dry before watering again. This can be daily in bright cold weather
    when the furnace is on frequently, or 3-4 days otherwise.
    But the biggest thing was getting rid of microscopic bugs that came
    with the Stevia from the nursery. Just to maintain its bugfree
    status, I sprayed them again last week, and NO leaf edges are black
    and curled. Yay! So, between unseen mites and cool growing
    conditions, my Stevia was doomed - until I smartened up.
   And it's not just stupidity. My daughter out west who got field-
   grown plants, big bushy things that made mine look sick, has lost
   every cutting (about 35) and the mother plants. Same symptoms. She,
   too, maintains a cooler house. Every cutting I gave away, AFAIK, has
   also died. You can bet I'll make amends, and be a little more certain
   of cultural instructions this time. :-) I think Stevia dislikes rigid
   watering schedules.
   I can sum it all up then, with - Keep warm in full sun, let dry,
   water as soon as needed...and keep BUGFREE!  I used a light summer
   horticultural oil that worked very well, a suggestion I got from
   other posters right here. :-)
                           ...Sandra...
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