Archive | March, 2022

Prepping Indigofera Suffruticosa seeds from my Garden to your Garden this spring

3 Mar

Many folks have written me to ask when the seeds will be posted up in my Etsy shop. I have heard a rumor of increased selling costs by Etsy so I am going to investigate other avenues of making seed available to you. Stay tuned. I will post here when I decide. Suggestions?

It is time to prep for the March winds to blow the chaff separate from the Suffruticosa seed. Let’s review what has happened up til now. Nov 2021 the weather cooled down and the seeds ripened. I took time to collect dried indigo leaves, gather the seed pods to dry and started shaping my bushes so they could be covered when the freezes swept in during Jan/Feb. It is all weather dependant. Will they survive or not? Each season that is the question. I am located in the far northern growing region of this plant in the Central Texas Hill country, similar to the olive tree growth area. When it freezes too much, our bushes are gone. But we have seed!

My plot after seeds and dried leaves are harvested. Bushes are trimmed down to allow for frost cloth supports and heat lamp structure to protect the bushes over the hard freezes.

These seed branches were put aside in a wheelbarrow in a protected area and allowed to continue to ripen and finally to freeze/dry. The freezing took out the bugs and made the pods easier to snap off to dry further.

These guys sat outside till the Texas deep freezes of 20 degrees. I brought them in to protect them and allow them to continue to dry. The pods and seeds are so much easier to separate after a couple of months of drying undisturbed. The stems are pulled out and the pods separated. All this takes place during a spare moment when the sun is shining and you can grab a moment outside in the winter sun.

Dried pods and molcajete bowl used to smash seeds out
Gently the pods are broken open to allow the seeds to be shifted from the pods
A lot of shifting debris/hulls & seeds takes place during this point before and after breaking the pods.
The end goal is to filter the seeds and fine chaff from the pod shells.
From Pod to Seed/Chaff
March winds will carry a lot of this away
Cleaned seeds will be packaged in early April
I’ve started preparing the seeds for winnowing for the inevitable March winds.
The dry & clean seeds will then be ready to package and ship to you for your garden.

A note for the gardeners, over the years I’ve tried starting Indigofera Suffruticosa as early as Japanese Indigo in cooler March/April temperatures. Not a good thing to do. One must wait for 80 and 90 degree consistent weather to ensure the seedlings are vigorous and strong. You can sneak start it with a heat pad BUT reports from growers who do so report weak plants. I prefer to start in seed trays and harden them off in the sun before I transplant them into the garden. In my area that also helps me protect the seedlings from spring crickets who are ravenously hungry in the early spring. I wait till the crickets clear. The heat takes them out.

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