Growth, development and yield of several sweetgrass (Stevia rebaudiana bertoni) varieties in winter crop 2018 in Thua Thien Hue

Abstract

The use of chemical sweeteners instead of natural sugar in industrial food production is common and convenient. However, the long-term utilisation of these sweeteners is a potential for serious diseases in humans. This paper evaluates the growth, development, and yield of several sweetgrass (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) varieties in the Winter crop of 2018 in Thua Thien Hue province and hence to replace the use of chemical sweeteners. The study was conducted directly on arable land (Acrisol), and experiments followed a randomized complete block design. The results show that the sweetgrass varieties have different growth heights. The M77 variety had the largest plant height (31.17 cm) while M1 has the smallest height (17.07 cm). The M77 variety has the highest number of leaves (40.9 leaves/plant), followed by the MT7 variety (33.53 leaves/plant). The variety with the least number of leaves is M1 (20.79 leaves/plant). In terms of branch numbers, the M77 variety has the highest tillering ability and M1 has the lowest tillering ability. Regarding the growth of canopy diameter in sweet grass, we found that M77 has the largest diameter of 12.44 cm, followed by MT7 with 10.08 cm, and M1 has the smallest diameter of 7.28 cm.