The effort to cultivate natural dyes (Indigofera Sp.) in Timor Region, NTT

The people of NTT, especially the Timor region, have still maintained their customs for generations. The use of natural dyes has also been increased to reduce environmental pollution due to the use of synthetic dyes that have the potential to contain heavy metals. There are more than 30,000 - 40,000 plant species in Indonesia and 150 of them are plants that can produce natural dyes. Indigofera spp. is a kind of natural blue plant. The problem faced in the use of plants as natural dyes is the availability of raw materials. So far, Timorese only harvest Indigofera spp which grows naturally from the environment around the house or in the nearby forest so that it cannot meet the needs on an industrial scale. This study aims to conduct cultivation techniques of 2 species of Indigofera and postharvest techniques to get the optimal blue color. The seeds used are the result of exploration from plants in Bosen, NTT and plant collections available at BPPTH Nursery, Nagrak, Bogor; Indigofera suffruticosa and Indigofera sp. The planting technique uses a completely randomized design (CRD) with 2 factors (2 species, 4 doses of humus). Each treatment combination consists of 3 replications. For postharvest techniques for making indigo paste using completely randomized design (CRD) with 2 levels of lime concentration. I. sufruticosa much better growth by adding humus at a dose of 1500 g/tree shows better branch improvement. For postharvest soaking techniques, it is enough to do 24 hours with the addition of 4% lime concentration.