Japanese Indigo - Harvest and Seed Production

Not a very focused picture but here is a bunch of cut Japanese Indigo flowering stalks. The weather is getting colder so these are brought into the house so the flowers will make and set seeds.



Japanese Indigo drying on racks. These were a thrift store find - toddler cots. I put toilet paper tubes on the feet to make more space between each level. After the leaves are dry I'll separate the stalks (those go in the regular compost) and compost the leaves in a burlap-lined bucket. Then form into cakes and dry. This preserves the pigment. It would be better if I could dry these outside in the sun but we aren't getting much of that at this time of year!

First Autumn Harvest

It is past the Autumn Equinox so it is now officially Fall. We did have some nice sunny afternoons earlier this week. Then rain. Today is overcast.

From the garden by the house:
1. A few Japanese Indigo stalks that look like they're getting ready to bloom, put in a jar of water so I can bring them inside if it gets too cold. They should root and bloom and then I can collect seeds.

2. Mars Marigold (T. patula). Four blossoms only. Only one of these plants survived the slugs. Put in freezer.

3. Coreopsis grandiflora (the perennial type I hope). Added a handful of blossoms to the bag in freezer.

From the farm:
1. Tururu Marigold (T. erecta). Added a large handful of blossoms to jar soaking in alcohol and water. I didn't even buy these seeds until June and it took them awhile to get going. Now they are two feet tall and the flowers are big and bushy.

2. Pink Dahlia flowers. All dahlias make a variety of yellow and golden yellow. Added several large blossoms to bag in freezer.

3. Several Japanese Indigo stalks. Some with the rounded leaves and some with the pointed leaves. Put these into the jar with the ones from the garden.

4. Hawthorn twigs and leaves (and a few berries). Put these to soak in water in a rectangular slow-cooker that is about 8"x12".

5. Weld leaves. Into freezer.

A Blue Blue

This skein was mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. Indigo doesn't need mordanting but maybe it brightens the color.

Indigo Yarns

1) Alpaca/Wool Bouclé: First dip in a reduction vat. Second dip in a direct cold water/vinegar vat.
2) Hand-spun Mohair: Two dips in two different cold water/vinegar vats.
3) Merino: one dip in a cold water/vindgar vat. Will get a second dip.
4) Alpaca/Silk: First dip in a reduction vat. Second dip in a cold water/vinegar vat.

Indigo Harvest

Today I harvested 1050 grams (2.25 lbs) of Japanese Indigo (Polygonum tinctorium, also known as Persicaria tinctoria). Here is the 2 gallon bucket with the cut stems:

I picked off the leaves into a gallon plastic bag for weighing, then cut them up with kitchen shears:

and stuffed them into a half gallon canning jar and filled it with warm water. Then I put the jar into a canning pot on a hotplate set to heat no higher than 100F to let it ferment overnight:

The next bag (250 g) I put into a 2 1/2 gallon plastic bucket with cold water. I'll add vinegar and macerate by hand to extract the color:

I also have 250g in a yogurt maker with water but it doesn't seem to be heating up much. I should have started with warm water. This is supposed to ferment too. I have just read a recipe for dyeing the fiber right away in the fermented liquid without beating it to oxygenate and then reducing it again. The fermentation splits the indican into indoxyl and glucose with carbon dioxide escaping as bubbles.

Coreopsis (mostly) Vat