Comfrey Plant

[Fred Perry]

Hi all, can anyone tell me where to get Comfrey Plants from or how to take cuttings from existing plants on my mates Allotment.
Cheers

[Bugeyes]

Not having any mates at the allotments at the time, I got three crowns from ebay and they are doing very well! You should be able to dig some up later in the year and transplant them but make sure that they are the right variety (bocking 14?) as this is the one that won't self seed and spread all over the place

[Snadger]

This may sound like a daft question but.....has anyone ever worked out what square yardage of comfrey you will need in relation to the yardage you would like to use it on?
Hope I have made myself plain........but not sure?

Example:- If I had to rely on comfrey as a manure on my allotment, would I need to fill a similar size allotment with it, or bigger or smaller area?

[martini]

Hi Fred - you can buy it from www.organiccatalog.com (can't put the link in cos don't know how!).

I'd like to put some in one of my beds but like you Snadger, I don't know if growing a small amount would be worth it.

[nick the grief]

Trust me you won't run out ! You can get it from Tamar Organics as well.

http://www.tamarorganics.co.uk/

If you plant them abot 2ft 6in apart & leave them to it the first year but remove the flower spike to allow th egoodness to go into establishing the plants.
Then you can take a bit of them the 2nd year then after theat you can cut about 3 or 4 times a year - they may need a bit of feed if you harvest them at this rate.

Beds are good for 20 years roughly.

As to propagating, what you do is sever a bit of the root & plant this. You may wish to root them in pots to start with in compost then plant up in hte spring.

Make sure that you use Bocking 14 as it is sterile & won't self seed everywhere but it will bulk up

[martini]

Thanks for that Nick - another item to add to my ever increasing list - God knows where it's all going to go - need about 40 beds

[denise]

hi there
i got my comfrey plants from the link you give - only got 5 as they grow fast (or so i understand) .
Havent plantted them yet as my lotty is a new over grow plot and want to put them in right place first off.
comfrey juice (made by leaves in a downpipe and a weight placed on top and the juice gows into a pot below) needs to be diluted 10 parts water to 2 juice, so should cover a good size area.

Hope this is a little bit helpful - I guess it's just my ramblings on the topic.

[nick the grief]

Hi denise.

If you are ever near Ryton Gardens they do an excellent booklet on COmfrey (& greenmaures come to that). When you do come to plant it spoil it with plenty of well rotted muck or compost as it's going to pay for it's up keep times over.

[Snadger]

Hi denise.

If you are ever near Ryton Gardens they do an excellent booklet on COmfrey (& greenmaures come to that). When you do come to plant it spoil it with plenty of well rotted muck or compost as it's going to pay for it's up keep times over.

Nic, any idea what area of land to devote to it if I wanted to use it as a soil conditioner on lottie instead of farmyard manure?

[nick the grief]

Good Question Snadger, I'm at work at the moment (lunch break) so I haven't got my books to hand so try this, it might help. You won't neet much as you don't need to add it like manure, it's more of a fertiliser than a soil conditioner so I guess you'll need to grow green manures to help with this as well as your home made compost.

http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetabl...ts/comfrey.PDF

[Snadger]

Is there any visual way to tell the Bocking 14 strain?
There is some comfey on an allotment I am after but I am not sure which type it is?

[nick the grief]

Don't think so Snadger. If it's already there use that as it's a pig to get rid of. It's just if you are starting from scratch, use Bocking 14

[Snadger]

Had a brainwave! Sneaked up to the allotment in question, gathered some seed heads off the comfrey and planted them in a pot. Logic dictates, if they dont grow it is bocking 14 as, if not, it will self seed easily I have been told!

[martini]

I saw some seeds for Russian Comfrey in the Kings catalogue - do you thing this would be bocking 14?

[rustylady]

Russian Comfrey - brilliant stuff. Check out eBay in the Spring. I bought one plant, I now have about a dozen 18 months on. To use: I take off the leaves (watch out, they're prickly), a few from each plant, stuff them in an old plastic bottle and top up with water, then leave lying around my allotment for a couple weeks...I then pour the resulting mixture into a watering can, diluted about 1:10 more or less. Really good fertiliser, just don't spill any on yourself (it stinks worse than any animal manure). Top up the bottle with leaves and water, and repeat process. The plants die back in winter, but grow back rapidly in Spring. You can also use the leaves just as a mulch, but I avoid this because it encourages slugs. I do let the plants flower as well, because the bees love it so much.