Sizing Up Your Vat

Q: I have never done an indigo vat in anything larger than a 5 gallon bucket. However, I was wondering about using a large trash can (32 gallons) for yardage. What are your thoughts? I was planning on doing a cold vat with iron and lime and have had great results in the 5 gallon. Do the proportions simply need to be multiplied by 6 to account for the size? Ex. if I used 50 grams of indigo in a 5 gallon vat, I would use 300 grams in a large vat. That just seems like so much indigo!

A: Yes, you can just increase the scale accordingly. It is quite a bit of indigo, but the vessel is very large! I work out of a 55 gallon vat right now and initially used a couple pounds of indigo to set it up. Make sure that you get a very heavy duty trash can, as they tend to warp and bend and are challenging to work with when full of water!