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bud.uncle
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Comfrey for Fertility
Now
Not many of you outdoors growers may have heard of Comfrey as a garden companion, yet if you have the space to grow it your garden your going to love it. It is said to be the best source of quickly available potassium you can get. Making it a very useful high potash liquid feed for tomatoes and other potash hungry plants.
Comfrey rarely sets seeds and is commonly grown from offsets, which are best planted 2 feet apart each way any time between January and November.
The roots are dormant through November to January and if planted during this period there may be losses during hard weather. Otherwise Comfrey is fully hardy.
It is a natural hybrid, which took, place in Upland, Sweden, between Symphytum officnale, the herbalists comfrey and S. asperum, the blue-flowered prickly Russian comfrey.
The modern hybred is called S. uplandicum.
They were sorted out at the HDRA trial ground at Bocking and the usual varieties are Bocking 14 with thin stems and mauve flowers, which if left uncut will grow 3 feet and is the highest in potash. Bocking 4 has thick, solid stems, large leaves and violet flowers. This has a higher yield yet starts growing later in the spring. It is today grown in many countries as stock feed. The major uses of the plant today are as a source of liquid manure and as a dried herbal tea that is commonly used to alleviate arthritis.
Starting and Keeping Comfrey
As with most good garden practice, it is wise to prepare the area in which you plan to plant comfrey well. Removing all perennial weeds and roots, for Comfrey is a permanent feature much like an Asparagus bed but much longer lasting. Digging in manure or compost to give the offsets a good start. After planting hoe between the rows to kill annual weeds. The best planting time depending on weather conditions is from late March to May, or a late summer planting in September.
Spring planted comfrey should be cut to about 5 inches above the ground in July or August, to prevent it flowering the first season. This should give you enough foliage to trial some homemade liquid manure. Any further growth should be left to die down with the plant in October. In the following year the first cut can be made in April and the last in late September, roughly ever six weeks.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMFREY AND TWO COMMERCIAL LIQUID FEEDS
Comfreys most popular home use today is as a liquid feed.
There are two common methods that I have tried to make this feed.
The first involves packing approximately 14 pounds of freshly cut leaves in a 20-gallon plastic container, which has a tap at the bottom. Fill the container with tap or rain water and replace the lid to exclude light. In about a month the clear feed can be drawn from the tap. One disadvantage of this system is that when the protein in the comfrey breaks down, it smells.
My preferred method was to use a plastic container with a borehole set in its side an inch or two above the bottom. My container was kept in my green house, set on concrete blocks with a screw top clean 4-pint plastic milk container placed below the hole. Fill the container with cut comfrey, packing it solid and putting a concrete block on its surface. In about three weeks, a black concentrate liquid will begin to drip from the hole, where it can be collected. This concentrate can be stored, out of direct light, in screw top containers if you do not wish to use it immediately.
The analysis average of this concentrate is:
Nitrogen (N) 0.11 per cent
Phosphorus (P) 0.06 per cent
Potassium (K) 0.55 per cent
Mix with water at a rate of 4 fluid ounces of concentrate to a gallon of water.
If you intend to foliar feed with this mixture it should first be filtered.
The residue left in the container can be dug directly dug into the ground, or added to a cold compost heap. Comfrey foliage holds much more carbohydrate and protein than fibre, which makes it a poor compost material. However if you find yourself with surplus comfrey, try mulching with freshly cut leaves under your tomatoes or soft fruits. If covered with lawn mowings, which will speed up its decomposition into a type of surface-made compost, from which plant foods will wash into the ground below.
I grew comfrey for many years in my last vegetable garden and sadly miss not having the space to grow it in my new patch.
This text has been adapted from the book:
The Green Gardeners Calendar
Author
Lawrence D. Hills
Founder and President of the
Henry Doubleday Research Association
Now
Not many of you outdoors growers may have heard of Comfrey as a garden companion, yet if you have the space to grow it your garden your going to love it. It is said to be the best source of quickly available potassium you can get. Making it a very useful high potash liquid feed for tomatoes and other potash hungry plants.
Comfrey rarely sets seeds and is commonly grown from offsets, which are best planted 2 feet apart each way any time between January and November.
The roots are dormant through November to January and if planted during this period there may be losses during hard weather. Otherwise Comfrey is fully hardy.
It is a natural hybrid, which took, place in Upland, Sweden, between Symphytum officnale, the herbalists comfrey and S. asperum, the blue-flowered prickly Russian comfrey.
The modern hybred is called S. uplandicum.
They were sorted out at the HDRA trial ground at Bocking and the usual varieties are Bocking 14 with thin stems and mauve flowers, which if left uncut will grow 3 feet and is the highest in potash. Bocking 4 has thick, solid stems, large leaves and violet flowers. This has a higher yield yet starts growing later in the spring. It is today grown in many countries as stock feed. The major uses of the plant today are as a source of liquid manure and as a dried herbal tea that is commonly used to alleviate arthritis.
Starting and Keeping Comfrey
As with most good garden practice, it is wise to prepare the area in which you plan to plant comfrey well. Removing all perennial weeds and roots, for Comfrey is a permanent feature much like an Asparagus bed but much longer lasting. Digging in manure or compost to give the offsets a good start. After planting hoe between the rows to kill annual weeds. The best planting time depending on weather conditions is from late March to May, or a late summer planting in September.
Spring planted comfrey should be cut to about 5 inches above the ground in July or August, to prevent it flowering the first season. This should give you enough foliage to trial some homemade liquid manure. Any further growth should be left to die down with the plant in October. In the following year the first cut can be made in April and the last in late September, roughly ever six weeks.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMFREY AND TWO COMMERCIAL LIQUID FEEDS
Comfreys most popular home use today is as a liquid feed.
There are two common methods that I have tried to make this feed.
The first involves packing approximately 14 pounds of freshly cut leaves in a 20-gallon plastic container, which has a tap at the bottom. Fill the container with tap or rain water and replace the lid to exclude light. In about a month the clear feed can be drawn from the tap. One disadvantage of this system is that when the protein in the comfrey breaks down, it smells.
My preferred method was to use a plastic container with a borehole set in its side an inch or two above the bottom. My container was kept in my green house, set on concrete blocks with a screw top clean 4-pint plastic milk container placed below the hole. Fill the container with cut comfrey, packing it solid and putting a concrete block on its surface. In about three weeks, a black concentrate liquid will begin to drip from the hole, where it can be collected. This concentrate can be stored, out of direct light, in screw top containers if you do not wish to use it immediately.
The analysis average of this concentrate is:
Nitrogen (N) 0.11 per cent
Phosphorus (P) 0.06 per cent
Potassium (K) 0.55 per cent
Mix with water at a rate of 4 fluid ounces of concentrate to a gallon of water.
If you intend to foliar feed with this mixture it should first be filtered.
The residue left in the container can be dug directly dug into the ground, or added to a cold compost heap. Comfrey foliage holds much more carbohydrate and protein than fibre, which makes it a poor compost material. However if you find yourself with surplus comfrey, try mulching with freshly cut leaves under your tomatoes or soft fruits. If covered with lawn mowings, which will speed up its decomposition into a type of surface-made compost, from which plant foods will wash into the ground below.
I grew comfrey for many years in my last vegetable garden and sadly miss not having the space to grow it in my new patch.
This text has been adapted from the book:
The Green Gardeners Calendar
Author
Lawrence D. Hills
Founder and President of the
Henry Doubleday Research Association
