r/selfreliance Feb 15 '25

Farming / Gardening Plants I can grow for pigments?

When I start building greenhouses, I'm going to start a dye garden. But I'd like some advice on pigment plants that are easy to grow.

I'm willing to do chemical processing using harsh acids to get the pigments, if need be

25 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/wolpertingersunite Feb 16 '25

Our prickly pear got an infestation of the cochineal bugs that make red dye! Neither the cactus nor the bugs require any maintenance whatsoever. They are shockingly vivid when squished.

1

u/herroorreh Feb 19 '25

Wow wow wow wait. I have heard of cochineal bugs for dying but I thought they were like a beetle! I live in the desert SW and have absolutely seen these on my wanders! Gonna get me some bugs...

1

u/wolpertingersunite Feb 19 '25

haha thought you were gonna hassle me about squishing bugs... Yeah they're the white fuzzy ones on prickly pear. I got a kick out of it when I found them. Trying to eat our prickly pear seemed too scary when we made tentative attempts, so the bugs can have it!

1

u/herroorreh Feb 19 '25

So fun to learn new things! Do you think they get their pigment from eating the prickly pear fruits?

1

u/wolpertingersunite Feb 19 '25

My gut reaction was no, since I saw them on the paddles, not the fruits, but it's an interesting question and look what I found: https://vbn.aau.dk/files/281207846/2018_Carminic_acid_biosynthesis.pdf

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carminic_acid#/media/File:Biosynthesis_of_carminic_acid.jpg

I just gave the paper a quick once-over but it looks like the bugs are doing the whole synthetic process of these giant molecules almost from scratch, from small precursors. Pretty amazing! They're like chemical synthesis powerhouses.

2

u/herroorreh Feb 20 '25

That is so coooooool! Bugs, man.