High RA Content Stevia Seeds,China Kingboon price supplier

Stevia Cultivation Introduction

 

There are two methods of stevia cultivation: 1. Seeds cultivation 2. Seedling transplantation

 

1. Stevia cultivation

1.1 The stevia plant is self-sterile, and it depends on the wind and insects for pollination and fertilization, it needs about 15 ~30 days for the fertilized ovule to become mature stevia seeds.

 

1.2 Hollowness rate of stevia seeds is high, generally it’s 15-30%. If during pollination period, stevia plants meet the cloudy or rainy days, low temperature or some else adverse conditions, the hollowness rate of the stevia seeds will be higher than 60%. As the seeds are very small and have pappus on them, it will cause that the seeds adhere to each other (which is not convenient for sowing).

1.3 Stevia seeds should be kept under 0-20 degree centigrade. If the temperature is higher than 25 degree centigrade, germination rate would be influenced a lot. So the seeds should be sowed in the same year, old seeds are not allowed.

1.4 Yield of the seeds is low, and cost is high, so the seeds are quite expensive. Seeds price in 2012 is USD240/Kg (minimum order quantity 20Kg). Since we need to issue inspection and quarantine certificate and export procedures, it would need extra cost. If order quantity is too small, the cost would be higher. The above price is FOB price without freight.

1.5 Since it is a long trip to export seeds abroad, and most of the seeds are delivered by air, freight cost is pretty high. To bring down the cost, and because of pappus, a lot of seeds could not germinate, some of the seeds are sold with no pappus, and seeds volume could also be compressed. 4Kg original seeds could process into 1Kg seeds without pappus,  so price will be 200*4+20=USD820/Kg, in which USD20 is labor cost of pappus removing.

 

Photo above shows seeds with pappus, and the right photo shows seeds without pappus. Volume of seeds without pappus is only 1/5 of original seeds.

 

1.6 According to seeds without pappus, 1.5Kg seeds are required for one hectare farmland.

 

2. Seeds cultivation:

 

2.1 Stevia seeds are tiny, and could not be easily sowed evenly. So before sowing, you should mix the seeds with some soil.

 

2.2 Make seedbeds before sowing. Usually, width of seedbeds is about 1m. Leave about 30cm channel between seedbeds. Usually, seedbeds are about 10cm above channel. You could decide seedbeds length according to terrain.

 

2.3 Usually, 4 seedbeds are a unit. There should be soil weir around, and set drainage channel around soil weir. Channels must be connected.

 

2.4 You should irrigate before sowing. However, you should not irrigate too much, only when the seedbeds are wet, and then drain water in the channels out and keep seedbeds wet. Then you could sow next day.

2.5 In order to prevent seeds and seedlings from rain, you must set plastic tents above seedbeds. When it rains heavily, cover the tents with plastic membrane. See below photos for details:

 

Above photo shows the author guiding seedlings cultivation in Indonesia.

 

2.6 When the seedlings grow about 8cm height, you could transplant them into farmland. In China, we could usually transplant 180,000 seedlings into one hectare farmland.

 

2.7 We need to explain, advantage of seeds cultivation is: you could introduce them from far away. However, the seeds can easily degenerate. For some high glycoside seeds, if you sow with seeds from their seedlings, the plants would degenerate into low glycoside within three years.

 

2.8 For stevia cultivation in high temperature regions, since the temperature is high, stevia seedlings grow fast. They would bloom without enough growth period, thus glycoside within them is not high. You should pay attention to early blooming and solve it to ensure the quality and yield.

 

3. Transplanting cultivation:

 

3.1 Since seeds can easily degenerate through seeds cultivation, we could use seedling head for transplant through the winter, and transplant them into farmland next spring to prevent seedlings degenerating.

3.2 In China, temperatures in winter is low, so we cut 6cm from stevia seedlings head in autumn, and transplant them into seedbeds, cover them with plastic tents. They could grow into new seedlings, and when the new seedlings grow 8cm in height, we could cut them and leave the roots. Roots would live through the winter under plastic tents. See below photo for details:

 

This photo shows the scene of the seedling head being transplanted into seedbeds. Usually, each person could transplant 8,000 seedlings heads per day.

 

3.3 See below photo for seedbeds after transplanting:

3.4 Since temperature in plastic tents is suitable, stevia seedlings could survive and grow fast. After one month of transplanting, growth of the variety Huizhong 1# is as below:

 

Above photo shows growth of the variety Huizhong 1# after being transplanted into plastic tents. You should cut them after they live through the winter, and let the roots grow new seedlings.

 

3.5 When spring comes, since the temperature within the tents is high, stevia seedlings would grow fast. The roots would grow branches. In China, usually we start transplanting in mid April. We transplant all new seedlings which grows more than 8cm tall.

 

3.6 Usually, we transplant 150,000-180,000 seedlings into one hectare farmland.

 

3.7 Usually, it takes 75 workers for manual transplanting, and 5 workers for mechanized transplanting in each hectare farmland.

 

4. Influence and requirements of stevia variety

 

4.1 For regular TSG90% and subsequent TSG95% production, you need only varieties with high glycoside content.

 

4.2 For premium TSG90% and subsequent RebA95-97% production, you need high glycoside content varieties, with RebA content more than 50%.

4.3 For Huizhong 1# variety from China, TSG content is 10-11%, with more than 70% RebA. And the yield is larger than Shoutian variety. From below photos, you could find, there is almost no black leaf from root for Huizhong, which means, Huizhong could bear disease better.

 

Photo above shows Huizhong 1# growth in Heilongjiang Province.It shows stevia cultivation in farmland. In Heilongjiang Province, people take mechanized cultivation.

This photo shows growth of Huizhong 1# in Mingguang, Anhui Province. You could find, there is almost no black leaf from root for Huizhong, which means, Huizhong could bear disease better.

This photo shows growth of Huizhong 1# in Wuwei, Gansu Province.

This photo shows growth of Huizhong 1# in Ningan, Heilongjiang Province.

 

Left photo shows growth of Shoutian 2# in Ningan, Heilongjiang Province. There are black leaves, which means the variety could not bear diseases well.

Left photo shows growth of Shoutian 2# in Ningan, Heilongjiang Province. There are black leaves, which means the variety could not bear diseases well.

Left photo shows growth of Shoutian 2# in Mingguang, Anhui Province. There are black leaves, which means the variety could not bear diseases well.

This photo shows growth of Shoutian 2# in Wuwei, Gansu Province. There are black leaves, which means the variety could not bear diseases well.

 

For stevia seedlings, no matter what the variety is, the price is almost the same. However, it is impossible to deliver them to other country because of two reasons:

1. Chinese government control plants seedlings export. It needs some procedures for seedlings export. And for example America countries, since the seedlings are alien species, the government would also control the import. So it is a risk, because we do not know if the custom office would pass the seedlings.

2. Stevia seedlings are tender plants. If they are delivered by sea, it may take several months before they arrive at destination. If they are delivered by air, then they may be broken when loading. So it is also impossible.

According to our consultation, we could only pack them and let our clients take them away. We could pack about 100 seedlings. And when our clients get back to their own country, they should plant the seedlings at once to make them alive. It could be possible.