May Lotito

We all LOVE Cherokee Purple! Why they are not sold as starter plants or fruits in the store? The flavor is so rich and amazing. One has to grow his or her own and taste the vine ripe fruits to enjoy this marvelous variety. I have more tomato seeds than I have room for and every year the Cherokee purple is the keeper. It is also the hardest one to get perfect fruits. I usually get concentric cracks around the shoulder. The cracks make the fruits susceptible to mold so I have been taking the issue very seriously. What I found is that Cherokee purple needs higher level of calcium and boron constantly to produce crack-free fruits.  I put lots of organic matter in the soil but tend to get flood in spring and drought in summer so the nutrient flow isn't matching the plant's need. It's far more sensitive than other varieties. Anyway, I am looking at it as the hallmark veggie of fertile soil, and likely the tomato would be more nutrient dense as well. I am making progress improving my soil and hopefully next year I will have more and better harvest of tomatoes.

Thom,
Wish mother nature could spare us some rain here. We only have one inch of rain since August 1st.

Some people have garden sitters to harvest cucumber, zucchini, okra etc while they are away to keep the plants productive. But if only the sitters know the difference between a summer squash and a winter squash! Maybe you can ask farmer friends for help should this happen again.

Five ears on a single stalk is interesting. Have you checked if they all have kernels? I got one plant with multiple ears, even on a single shank but that was due to failed pollination. The corn kept trying to channel the energy somewhere.

Christopher,
Maybe the short season mountain Morado will suit your area. I experimented with a late planting on August 25th and they are tasseling and silking now in just 35 days. I might get some sweet corns in three weeks but I mostly grow them to build up soil biomass.

Japanese indigo is easy to grow from seeds. Here is the patch in mid July less than two months of sowing. Look how lush and  green the leaves are. Indican is synthesized from glucose and amino acid tryptophan. So when there are robust photosynthesis and plenty of nitrogen, the indican level is high. I should've done the extraction back then. Now after severe summer drought, the plants are very sad looking, despite regular irrigation. I wouldn't be surprised if yield is low from the final cut. These are planted in a less fertile spot. I have a few clumps for seed saving that are healthier.

According to the public quality report, my local tap water pH is about 7.8 from over 1000 ft deep well. Hardness is very high at over 250 ppm. The high calcium ions could strengthen the cell walls and slow down leakage. Besides,the indigo plants are grown in full sun so they have thick and tough leaves that remain turgid in water for a long time.

Common 5% white vinegar pH 2.5 is diluted in tap water to reduce pH. I go no more than 1 table spoon to 2 cups for fast small scale extraction. For large scale extraction from mature plants, which I haven't tried this year, I plan on reducing the ratio to 1:100 or lower and soak up to three days.  pH in the soaking water would be around 3 to 4.

Beta-glucosidase, the enzyme that breaks down indican into glucose and indoxyl, has optimal activity around pH 5 to 6.  The simplest way is to add hydrated lime powder to both increase pH and precipitate indigo pigments (method #1). I prefer adding small amount of washing soda just enough to have indigo forming, then adding calcium for precipitation ( method #2 and #3).

I tested both hydrated lime Ca(OH)2 and calcium chloride for indigo precipitation. The former one results in bulkier aggregates easy for filtering and the latter gives finer and more unstable precipitation. The supernatant from hydrated lime is very alkaline and needs to be neutralized before discarding, while that from soluble calcium is less harsh. Or I can just let the blue water sit for a long time and indigo will settle at the bottom eventually (method #4).

Of the four options, some is faster, some is easier, some requires less material, some gives higher purity. It's personal choice which one to use so just play around and have fun.

Using a black light flashlight to visualize indican leaching

One of the the challenges of indigo purification is that the precursor, indican, is colorless. It is hard to tell if the soaking is successful because of this. Usually people wait till they see oxidized blue indigo film on top of the water. Yet if you soak young P. tinctoria leaves, without the interference of pigments from old leaves and flowers, you will notice the water is turning a bit green antifreeze-like under the sunlight. If you use a UV flashlight, the green glow is very prominent in the dark. I am not sure the mechanism of this and no literature shows indican is fluorescent, but indican contains a indole moiety that potentially can absorb UV. Maybe there is something else binding to it that together they give out the bright green fluorescence. Nevertheless. I find that the optical density of green fluorescence correlates positively with the yield of indigo and use it to optimize soaking conditions for maximum indican release.

The contrast between soaking in alkaline tap water and acidic water with vinegar added is very dramatic as shown below. That'show I come up with the amount of vinegarto add abd the duration of soaking. If you use rain water, or well water, or less alkaline tap water, my numbers probly don't apply. By using a blacklight flashlight, you would be able to see wether the soaking is working and decide on the right amount for yourself.

Japanese indigo Persicaria tinctoria is a dye plant wildly cultured in East Asia for the blue indigo dye. Typically, mature plants at blooming stage are harvested, soaked in water, aerated and precipitated with lime. Due to the weather pattern in my area, annual Japanese indigo grown from seeds are most healthy and robust in early summer during the vegetative stage. They struggle in mid summer drought and it is labor intensive to keep them to maturity. I prefer doing the extraction with young leaves, as the indigo precursor, indican, is also at the highest concentration in these tissues.

With some trials and errors, I come down to procedures that yield good amount of high purity pigments within two days. It's largely similar to the regular method but with a few tweaks. Here I am going to show the key steps to watch out for.

1. Plant tissues
Top few inches of young healthy leaves. No dirty, damaged or diseased leaves to reduce the risks of microbial degradation.

2. Soaking temperature
Temperature from 70 F to 80 F preferably. If it is too hot outside, I do the soaking indoors.

3. Water for soaking
The pH of water used for soaking makes a big difference. Indican leaches out faster in acidic water than in alkaline water. Tap water is generally alkaline and can significantly slow down the extraction. However, lowering the pH too much can also inhibit later steps.

4. Duration of soaking
Longer soaking increase yield but also increase the amount of impurities. If the pH is optimal, the first  24 hours is enough to leach out the majority of indican and little non-specific compounds.

5. Hydrolysis and oxidation to produce indigo
Hydrolysis of indican is also pH dependent. Oxidation is straightforward and the production of indigo can be visualized by the blue color.

6. Precipitation with calcium
Traditional it is done with hydrated/pickling lime. I primarily use soluble calcium salt. They both have pros and cons.

In the following posts I will show how a small extraction is done in a regular drinking glass with common household chemicals, how to visually follow each step, and how to adjust the amount to achieve high yield.

Growing indigo takes time, resources and space, I wish you all make the best out of it and enjoy dyeing with this natural pigment!

Impressive indeed! I would put a big "home grown pumpkins" sign to really show off.

I harvested a small handful of hips from my rose bush.

Judith kindly shared some Jndian blood peach pits with me so this is my new addition. See how fast it has been growing!

Thekla McDaniels wrote:

May Lotito wrote: Oats cost $12 in a 50 lbs bag from feed store so it's very economical if I just broadcast a large area.

12 bucks per 50 pounds?

Lucky you!  $29 for 50 pounds seed oats in my region!

Oat is the cheapest of all. I actually paid $10 and change for the bag, wheat is $18.75 and rye over $26. I sowed some in ground for chicken to graze and plan on sprouting greens over the winter. Still waiting for some moisture for broadcasted oat covercrop.

I have no commercial compression socks to compared with, but I sew socks out of felted wool sweaters. They were sourced from the free store when people accidentally laundered 100% wool garments in hot water and donated them away. The socks are very thick and warm and I can shrink them more to be tighter after they are made.