Stevia · Osorno, Los Lagos Region, Chile
When to plant stevia in Osorno
Main outdoor window
25 Sep - 16 Oct
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
11 September
In Osorno, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
29 Dec - 30 Mar
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Osorno
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
17 Jul - 7 Aug
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
25 Sep - 16 Oct
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
29 Dec - 30 Mar
Stevia through the year
Against the frost risk in Osorno
Why these dates
Start indoors 8 weeks before the last frost and plant out well after it - stevia sulks in cold soil. Cuttings are more reliable than the seed, which germinates erratically.
Killed at 0C. Overwinters only where frost-free, or as a container plant brought inside.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Stevia are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Osorno.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Osorno is zone 9b, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 1, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Growing stevia in Osorno
When should I plant stevia in Osorno?
Aim for 25 Sep - 16 Oct in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Oct - 11 Nov - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will stevia be ready to harvest in Osorno?
Expect to start picking around 29 Dec - 30 Mar, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will stevia tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Overwinters only where frost-free, or as a container plant brought inside.