About SPINDIGO

Now in its final year, SPINDIGO is a €3.6 (£2.2) million European collaboration that has been developing new, sustainable ways of producing indigo from crops to satisfy the market demand for naturally sourced indigo. The Project started in 2001, and has now accumulated a wealth of information on crop cultivation and indigo production. When the Project is completed at the end of the summer of 2004, it aims to provide EU growers with the ability to supply a high value end-product, which can be sold direct from the farm-gate as a natural alternative to synthetic indigo.

SPINDIGO is a market-led project. Natural indigo is in demand by the textile, fashion and cosmetics industries, but it is a product that present production methods cannot supply. Over the last few years SPINDIGO has supplied many fashion design companies with natural indigo. Boudicca used our indigo for a range shown at the Autumn 2001 London Fashion Week; Karada Italia used it for men’s jackets (Corpo Nove line) launched at  Pitti Immagine Uomo, Florence in 2002; Mely’s Maglieria used our indigo for their KOS Collection launched in 2003; and our indigo was used for the International Exhibition, Grűne Woche, held in Berlin early in 2004.

SPINDIGO Partners have  grown indigo-yielding crops in Spain, Italy, Germany, UK and Finland for the past three years.  The crops have been woad (Isatis tinctoria), Chinese woad (Isatis indigotica),  and polygonum (Polygonum tinctorium).  Using the key yield parameters of leaf weight and indigo yield per unit leaf weight, we have compared genetic lines from a variety of sources; analysed the relationship between indigo yield and the main environmental parameters of air temperature, global radiation, day-length, rainfall, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).  We find that woad grows well in all the climatic zones examined, with yields of indigo up to 100 kg indigo/ha; Chinese woad gives higher yields, but is less reliable because of bolting and disease susceptibility; while polygonum yields well, and is more suited to Central Europe and the Mediterranean, but tolerates neither drought nor very high temperatures.

SPINDIGO  has used traditional breeding methods to select for high-yielding strains of woad. To maximise economic yield for both crops, we have identified for each climatic zone the optimum times for sowing, and the optimum times for harvest; up to four harvests per year are possible.  We have also determined nitrogen fertiliser rates, irrigation requirements, row spacing, and herbicide treatments. All this information is being encapsulated in short booklets, our Agronomic Blueprints, specific for each of the Spindigo Partner countries. These will be practical guides for the cultivation of the indigo-yielding crops and the on-farm extraction of indigo.

SPINDIGO third year report (PDF file)

Mobile farm-based extraction machinery designed to handle a high through-put of woad has been developed. Woad and polygonum have also been extracted using non-specialised equipment. And a novel patented technology for extraction is being developed. Indigo produced in the Project has been used in test dyeings to DIN standards with natural fabrics and unconventional materials. The results compared well with the synthetic product and the present limited commercial sources of natural indigo. In line with the value of our indigo as a natural, sustainable product we have identified natural auxiliary agents for dyeing.

Natural does not necessarily mean sustainable; and to back up our sustainability claim, a draft Environmental Impact Statement of natural indigo production has been drawn up. In short, the whole production chain from plant breeding to dyeing has been covered by the SPINDIGO Project.

Spindigo Partners

                The University of Reading, UK, School of Plant Sciences,

Project coordination, indigo purification, and natural indigo reduction

         Contact Professor Philip John, +44 118 378 8098

   University of Bristol, UK, natural dyes research,

Crop plant analysis, yield determination, and extraction

       Contact Dr David Hill +44 117 9289035

    TLL, Germany, der Thüringer Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft, natural dyes research,

Woad and polygonum analysis agronomy, and yield

Contact Dr Armin Vetter, +49 3641 6830

LIVOS, Germany, natural dye products,

Indigo dyeing

                 Contact Dr Ulla Eggers, +49 5825 8825