[Latin Name] Stevia rebaudiana

[Plant Source]from China

[Specifications] 1.Stevia Extract Powder (Steviosides)

Total Steviol Glycosides 80%, 90%, 95%

2. Rebaudioside-A

Rebaudioside-A 40%, 60%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%

3. Stevioside 90%

One monomer in Steviol Glycosides

[Appearance] Fine white powder

Plant Part Used:Leaf

[Particle size] 80 Mesh

[Loss on drying] ≤5.0%

[Heavy Metal] ≤10PPM

[Shelf life] 24 Months

[Package] Packed in paper-drums and two plastic-bags inside.

[Net weight] 25kgs/drum

Stevia Extract

[Characteristics]

Stevia sugar features high sweetness and low calorie and its sweetness is 200 350  times of that  of cane sugar but its calorie is only 1/300 of that of cane sugar.

The component of stevia extract that gives it its sweetness is a mixture of various steviol glycosides. The components of sweetness in stevia leaves are stevioside, rebaudioside A, C, D, E and dulcoside A. Rebaudioside C, D, E and dulcoside A are small in quantity. The principal components are stevioside and rebaudioside A.

The quality of stevioside and rebaudiosideA is better than those of other components, which are commercially extracted and used in various applications.

The steviol glycosides present in stevia extract are referred to as “steviosides” or ¡°stevia extract¡±. Among these “steviosides”, the most common is Stevioside followed by RebaudiosideA. The Stevioside has a slight and pleasant herbal taste and the Rebaudioside-A has no herbal taste.

Although Rebaudioside C and dulcoside A are small in quantity in stevia extract, they are the major components giving bitter aftertaste.

[Function]

A large number of pharmaceutical tests have proved that stevia sugar has no side effects, carcinogens, and is safe for eating.

Compared with cane sugar, it can save 70% of the cost. With pure white color, pleasing taste and no peculiar smell, Stevia sugar is a new sugar source with broad perspective for development. Stevia rebaudianum sugar is the natural low hotsweet agent mostly similar to the flavor of cane sugar, approved to be used by State Ministry of Health and Ministry of Light Industry.

It is the third natural succedaneum of cane sugar and beet sugar with development and health care value, extracted from the leaves of the herbal vegetable of the composite family-stevia rebaudianum.

Stevia Cultivation Processing and Marketing Project At Saran District of BIHAR(India)

Shows the progression of calcium deficiency in hot pepper plants like the chocolate habanero. Planted from seed, the soil had enough calcium at first and when the plant ran out it started to put out deformed growth with twisted, curled and puckered leaves.
The solution was to add 10ml/gallon of botanicare’s cal mag fertilizer supplement: https://www.botanicare.net/supplements/cal-mag In less than a week new leaves appeared without any deformities.
Note that the pepper plants were started from seed in bagged potting soil and in this video they are shown 2 days after transplanting to a coir fiber / rockwool cube mixture. Through out the life of the plants Genesis nutrients parts M & 1 were used at 800ppm but apparently genesis’s formulation expects a certain level of calcium magnesium in it. For plants with a high cal mag requirement supplementation may be needed. Note also I could have bumped the fertilizer concentration up to 1600ppm rather than supplement with botanicare but I do not know if that would have worked as well. Note: if you are using a one part fertilizer you WILL have calcium deficiencies unless there is enough in the soil.

Wiki article on calcium deficiency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_deficiency_%28plant_disorder%29

“…very rarely due to calcium deficiency in the soil. The problem is in transport of calcium from the soil to the fruit. Soil temperature, water saturation of the soil (oxygen etc), and high levels of nitrogen= high vegetative growth all contribute. ” https://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg0413031513506.html
Tricks for growing peppers: CALCIUM CALCIUM CALCIUM. The mild 800ppm genesis formula I was using only supplied 50ppm of calcium and peppers need 160-200ppm. Even with the supplement it was only 130PPM! Of course, this is assuming there is no calcium in your water. I am going to bump up the nutes to make sure I hit at least 160ppm calcium and also make sure I get the pH right by checking with pHydrion paper. (Ebay pH roll and pick one in the 5.5-8.0 range)
Note is this had happened during fruiting it would have resulted in blossom end rot so i am happy to find it out early and correct it.
Will post an update when the results come in!
Note calcium can also be locked out by using a fertilizer too high in ammoniacal nitrogen. ammoniacal nitrogen makes your plants grow fast in high light environments and is common in most nutrient formulas like miracle grow. Look for nitrate nitrogen only formula or one with low ammonium nitrate.
As far as NPK ratios, what you are looking for is 1.5 times as much K as N and for the nitrogen and calcium ppm to be about equal. To increase the potassium to meet the 1:1.5 N to K ratio I used Pro-Tekt silicon supplement which provided about 13ppm of K with 5ml/1tsp.
Forget about the P, as long as there is some it isn’t important.
pH balance to 6.0-6.5 and you are all good. Add 10ml of hygrozyme if you really want to see explosive root growth.
Even after all of this if your starting water has a lot of calcium carbonate (the form found in Tums which is also not a form you plants can absorb) in it that will “lock out” the proper forms of calcium that you added via supplement. So if all else fails (or you want to get it right the first time) use rainwater or purified water to start with.
DO NOT USE TUMS! Its Calcium Carbonate is not bio-available to the plant will LOCK OUT the other forms of calcium that would otherwise be available. More info on Calcium: https://www.maximumyield.com/article_sh_db.php?articleID=447&yearVar=2009&issueVar=June

Here is a link to a helpful article on pepper fertilization https://www.agnet.org/library/eb/441/

Update: they look GREAT but all my flowers are dropping except with the college pepper. I need to look into nute lockout and adjust the pH to 5.8-6.2 as I did have it closer to 5.5 before but I doubt that is the issue.

Want to make your own? Cal-Mag is just calcium nitrate + magnesium nitrite + a pinch of chelated iron edta. A POUND of caldium nitrate will make about FOUR GALLONS of concentrate equivalent to the Cal-Mag commercial version. As far as mixing weights and measures, you are on your own.

If this info helped you, more updates are comming for this growing season, subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=pabbana

this new product looks interesting, not sure how it works and may not be available in your state: https://www.supercroppers.com/products/caos-10-5-calcium-1-liter/