It’s almost the start of summer here, and the days are getting longer. This journal would be more appropriately titled “Japanese Dye Plants Diary”, but the akane is the most unusual part I’m growing, and I already mistitled the first entry. Japanese Indigo has gotten popular, but we’re all growing it for a reason. Murasaki is rarer, and I’m still figuring out the best way to cultivate it. It’s definitely more challenging, but it seems very well suited to the climate of western Pennsylvania.
Most of the plants outgrew their pots before the last frost date, so I was forced to plant early. I finished putting the indigo in the wattle beds, and I planted the better part of the akane in every dappled shade space I could find. I still have a few immature vines that were up-potted late due to soil availability, and I’m waiting for them to get a bit bigger in size before planting. The akane and murasaki plants were rootbound and the murasaki was flopping over from its size. I need the plants to be large when they’re planted, because there’s wildlife in my yard that would destroy a row of indigo seedlings in a day. However, I think that I needed to start everything a few weeks later than I did
The cold weather and early planting forced me to use blankets for a few days when the weather dipped into the mid 30s and below at night. This was manageable due to the design of the beds and a few bamboo poles I had in the garage.
The akane didn’t seem to mind the light frost, which barely touched freezing, and looked the same the next morning. I took care to harden the plants off the weeks before. Before the end, I was only moving them inside at night when the temperature dropped below 40.
Later, when the weather warmed, I discovered crimes committed in the indigo bed.
The next day, I met the culprit.
Fortunately, they seemed totally disinterested after their first sampling, and one of the plants will bounce back. The one that was trimmed close to the ground had enough of a mature root system to make new leaves. The one that was pulled out of its hole and dragged across the bed died.
One thing to note about cultivating akane – it’s a vine that easily entangles. So when you have all the seedlings next to each other, they grow into each other, and then when you go to plant them, the delicate stems tear, and … yeah, so I destroyed a bunch of akane stems despite trying to be gentle pulling them apart. The heart shaped leaves hook onto and interlace with each other. They need to be spaced apart, and the vines can’t grow into each other.
I planted the akane in as much dappled shade as I could find, and it genuinely seems to thrive in the shade of the house and its bushes. The murasaki actually put out volunteer plants this year, and I’m hoping some of them will make it as well.
It’s already getting unseasonably hot here, so I bought mulch and that’s the next project. I need to mulch the indigo beds, and around the plants that seem most vulnerable to heat.
Finally, something I’m puzzling over. I accidentally dug up a young Murasaki plant, less than two years old, and once I had already killed it I figured I might as well see how the root color was. It was perfect, and deep purple. However, when I checked the older plant that was three years old, it was lighter with less color.
The information on murasaki cultivation in english is really nonexistent, but there’s a book in Japanese on it, as well as a companion book on dyeing with it. I’ve ordered them, and my next post will contain what I’ve learned so far. I already checked Seiju Yamazaki’s dyeing books for information, but there’s nothing much about the cultivation.
I’m thinking through what experiments I want to run with the fresh indigo this summer, and I should have some trials with rubia cordifolia I’ve purchased as well to prepare for a future akane harvest.