Growth performance of Stevia ebaerdiana Bertoni, under mid hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh

the present work was carried out to study the growth performance, stevioside and rebaudioside-A accumula-tion in the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni under a subtropical mid hill region of Himachal Pradesh. Height of the stevia plants varied from 54.0 cm to 81.0, number of branches per plant varied from 2 to 3.8, and biomass of leaves for each plant varied from 12.1 to 33.9 g on dry weight basis. Leaf length varied from 5.0 cm to 8.4 cm, averaging 6.9 cm and width from 1.6 to 3.0 cm, averaging 2.3 cm. Stevioside content varied from 6.6% to 7.5%, averaging 6.9% before flowering, declined to 4.4–5.3%, averaging 4.8%, during flowering and increasing again to 5.4–6.9%, averaging 6.2% during seed formation. rebaudioside-A content varied from 4.8 to 5.9%, averaging 5.3% during first collection of stevia leaves, declined to 0.06–3.9%, averaging 2.1%, during second collection and increasing again to 3.7–5.1%, averaging 4.4% during third collection. total protein content declined with maturation of leaves, decreasing from 12.7% to 7.5%. there was decline of total nitrogen from 2% to 1.3%, P from 0.17% to 0.16% and K from 0.35% to 0.33%. Statistically, the variation was not significant (P<5%) in the biochemical parameters with the maturation of leaves. Stevia shows the promising growth under mid hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh.