Harvesting Comfrey

[bario1]

Hi, my comfrey plants are about to flower, should i chop them right back? strip the leaves, harvest half or what? I don't want to kill them for the year... any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

[WPG]

Are the plants in their first season? If they are, then the Garden Organic factsheet advises to let them grow for their first year, removing any flower stems. (I followed their advice in the first year, but they're such tough plants that I'm not so sure it was necessary to leave them)

If they're established plants, then cut the whole plant with shears to just above ground level. It'll be ready for the next cut in around a month to six weeks, and can be cut until September (after then, leave the plant to build its reserves).

Don't forget to wear gloves. I chopped mine down last weekend, and made the mistake of having short sleeves...itchy rash all up the arms.

[bario1]

Thanks for that, they are in their second season, left them to their own devices last year and this year they are rampant!

[alldigging]

Cut it back with secateurs. Wear gloves.

[Two_Sheds]

I just use shears to chop them down, probably once a month, then scatter the leaves on the beds as a mulch. Some leaves go to top up the liquid comfrey feed

[ancee]

I usually wait until the flowers have opened and the bees have drunk their fill! It sounds like a lawnmower in there some mornings with so many bees going mad

[snakeshack]

I just hack mine off about an inch above the ground.it grows back in about 4-6 weeks


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[KevinM67]

I strip the leaves when planting spuds and put them at the base of the trough. Then just cut down the stalk.

When it grows back, it's comfrey tea making time for the summer fruits and tomatoes.

The rest is used (heads and seeds apart) to provide a mulch for beds and as a tonic for the compost heap.

[WPG]

Or another way of using it is to extract the concentrated oil, which can be stored for ages, and diluted for use (doesn't smell at all). I posted an easy method to do this on another thread - not sure how to link to the right post, but it's post number 10 in this thread
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...-advice-2.html

[jacob]

Brill! Thanks all. Having finally acquired some comfrey last year, I'm looking at actually using it this. I think you've answer my questions...

[meteor]

I reap armfulls at a time with a sickle and have a "brew" on the go continously throughout the summer as in the attached picture. I have just started to harvest my first crop this season,the full container is from last year's brew and I put back an empty barrel after I took the picture. I got 8 such barrels from it last season and I am using it at present to drive my strawberries in the polytunnel mad. Comfrey is rampant in my garden and I am now devoting a neglected area in the garden for it as I dig it up elsewhere.The comfrey along with yarrow, camomile, feverfew, tansy and yarrow and many others which now grow wild on my plot are a legacy of my great grandmother who was a herbalist and my father once told me she made a tincture from comfrey to heal broken bones, alas I regret that the knowledge she had was never past down the generations.

[Two_Sheds]

she made a tincture from comfrey to heal broken bones, alas I regret that the knowledge she had was never past down the generations

It used to be called knitbone and was used as a poultice.

[Two_Sheds]

Comfrey is rampant in my garden

... and that's why we recommend the Bocking 14 variety, because it doesn't spread itself by seed

[meteor]

Sadly blocking 14 was not available during my great grandmother's era.