🎨 AI-generated botanical illustration
🌱 Indigo
Indigofera tinctoria / Persicaria tinctoria (Japanese indigo)
dye_plants
annual/tender perennial shrub
☀️ Sun
full sun
💧 Water
moderate
🗺️ Zones
[8,9,10,11]
🧪 Soil pH
5.5-7.5
🪴 Soil Type
well-drained, rich
📏 Spacing
12-18 inches
📐 Height
3-6 ft
⏱️ Maturity
90-120 days for leaf harvest
🤝 Companions (4)
🤝 Bean
Both nitrogen-fixing (indigo is a legume!) and can be intercropped
🤝 Corn
Corn provides partial shade for indigo
🤝 Cotton
Indigo dyes cotton — grown together on the plantation, processed together
🤝 Rice
Grown in rotation with rice in traditional Asian indigo cultivation
⚠️ Keep Apart (1)
⚠️ none — but processing indigo is smelly (fermentation); site the dye vat away from living spaces
📝 Growing Notes
The source of the world's most important natural blue dye — the color of jeans, royal robes, and the Tuareg people's veils. Not blue in the plant — the precursor indican is clear. The magic happens when leaves are fermented, oxidized, and the dye precipitates as brilliant blue. A legume — fixes nitrogen.
🛒 Buy Seeds & Plants
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Botanical Interests
True Leaf Market
Burpee
Territorial Seed Company
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