Is it possible to tell what type of comfrey this is? Bocking 14 hopefully!

[Russel Sprout]

Hi all

I recently moved house. I was lucky enough to find someone local in the last house who kindly gave me some roots of her organic Bocking 14, which I planted and used a lot before moving.

I haven't found any locally yet to use in the new garden. To be honest, I haven't started looking properly yet. But there is some comfrey already in the garden. The trouble is I don't know what type it is and I wondered if anyone can tell from looking whether or not it is Bocking 14. If further pics would help identify, please let me know and I'll take them and post them up.

I'd really like to dig some of the comfrey into the ground where I'll be growing, but don't want to risk spreading it everywhere if it is a fertile type.

Many thanks

[Russel Sprout]

(I've got another two photos but the upload keeps failing on those for some reason.... I'll try again later).

[Scarlet]

The photos won't upload if they are too large. Either crop them too make them smalller, use an image resizer/compressor -this one is good and takes seconds https://tinypng.com/
Or alternatively emailing it to yourself will reduce the mage.

If you dig in the comfrey as it is and remove the flowers it can't reseed.

[greenishfing]

If you only have one plant in the garden (unless it is newly planted) it is odds on it's Bocking14 or it would have seeded everywhere already.

[nickdub]

Looks exactly like my Bocking 14 - as you have already mentioned, relatively easy to propagate from root cuttings which can be done at more or less any time of year.

[Russel Sprout]

Hi all

Many thanks for the helpful replies.

Thanks also for the tip about the photo uploads. I've reduced the size and that's done the trick, so here they are:






I also asked about this on another forum, and it was pointed out there that the flowers on my photos look paler than those of Bocking 14...

However, what has been said here certainly makes a lot of sense with regards to the fact it is all quite well contained within its area, although I don't know how much was planted to begin with so cannot be totally sure. How quickly and widely does wild comfrey grow? Would it be everywhere within a matter of a couple of years if it wasn't Bocking 14 (as in a LOT more spread than in my garden?)

Another thing... There are loads of seed heads as per the additional photos. I was thinking I can pop a whole load into a pot of compost and that will tell me for sure whether the seed is fertile or not. Does that sound like a good plan? If so, any tips on how to plant the seed? Most importantly, when do I know the seed is ready to be planted? But any other tips on how to plant the seed would also be most helpful.

Thanks again

[nickdub]

I'd be very surprised if it isn't Bocking 14, but your plan to test germinate any seeds sounds workable, so that would seem like a sensible extra precaution.