The woad continues growing out and now up. In one of the pots some volunteer basil appeard, which means Pesto sauce as well as blue dye.
I wasn’t sure how the particular plant would manage in a hot, dry (Southern California) climate. It seemed to start out slow last fall and really took off around the beginning of summer.
Should anyone else be interested, here are a couple of Woad sites:
Woad Inc
Rowan’s Woad Page
Yahoo Group: woadgrowers
Since the “loom upgrade” or adding the 4 extra harnesses to my LeClerc Minerva I’ve run into what I’ve seen described as a common problem with jack looms and 6+ harnesses – the floating harnesses. The LeClerc site suggested adding weights. Wandering around my local hardware store I found something that seems to work. I’m not sure what they are or are actually for but now are loom harness weights.
So far this seems to be solving the problem. I don’t know if anyone else has had any experience with this? Solved in any other manner?
Around the time that the Oxalis was dying off the Fennel seemed to take off. It looks like I won’t be scavenging the Smart-&-Final parking lot or sides of freeways for Fennel this year. The backyard stand – now too large to be called a shrub – is producing enough to keep me in dye and local insects in food.
Also here, my first attempt at growing Woad. There are 2 plants, still in pots. One seems to have some Sweet Basil growing along side – probably from some other planting. They are about 6” across right now. I’m not sure how fast these grow but it is unlikely there will be blue dye until next season.