comfrey

[daver110]

I have ordered some comfrey seeds, and I have never raised it before. Anyone have ant advise?

 

[Mickey328]

I started mine from plants, so can't advise you on the seeds. We have it planted in a sort of semi-shady spot and make sure it gets plenty of water and it's doing great! Besides being great for poultices for bruises and such, the chickens love it and it makes a great compost starter!

 

[lesa]

I started mine from a transplant, as well. So, I can't speak to the seeds... I have mine planted under an apple tree. It is said, because comfrey has such a long tap root- it brings nutrients up to the the tree. In the "olden" days all the orchards were planted with comfrey. A very sturdy plant. Last summer we were so dry, that it was pretty dead. As soon as the rain began, it regrew and looked perfect, like nothing ever happened. Enjoy!

 

[catjac1975]

I started out with a single plant 30 or so years ago. At first I was thrilled that it self sowed so easily and transplanted it as a borden around my veggie garden. It is a beautiful plant that is adored by bees. We feed it to chickens and horses for it's medicinal qualities. The woodchucks love it so they ate it holding them off for a bit from the vegetables with out so much as wilt from the plant. It expands by self seeding, underground roots, and if you till it into bits each little bit grows into a giant plant. We have spent years trying to eradicate it from the vegetable garden. It became thousands of hard to remove plants and it will out live us both even through we remove it continually. If you still want the plant try to contain it as you would bamboo and don't let it got to seed. Why do you want to plant it? Beware.

 

[lesa]

Interesting, Cat... I have had my plant for several years, and though the plant is larger, it has not spread. Maybe our winters are too cold?

 

[catjac1975]

arggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

 

[NwMtGardener]

My experience has also been like Cat's...wonderful plant, once it really gets established there's no stopping it!! The lady i was working for had planted it welll away from all her other beds, and it was fine there, just taking over its own little corner of the world...that might be a good strategy for you if you still want to plant it!

 

[nelson castro]

Comfrey is known by many names including knitbone, boneset, wallwort and bruisewort. It is a good source of potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium for your plants. You can even make a liquid fertilizer from comfrey compost, also called compost tea.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Comfrey is known by many names including knitbone, boneset, wallwort and bruisewort. It is a good source of potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium for your plants. You can even make a liquid fertilizer from comfrey compost, also called compost tea.

I've heard the beekeepers all mention Boneset from time to time but I never knew what they were talking about. Oh well that's OK 'cause I don't know what Comfrey is either. I had never heard of either until I started coming to this website.

What is Comfrey used for? I'm always looking for something to feed the rabbits as all of the processed feeds are soaring in price these days. Actually I'm starting to think about getting rid of the bunnies due to economics.

 

[897tgigvib]

I have an ecology action (bountiful gardens) booklet about growing Comfrey as one of the most soil sustainable plants there is. It concentrates potassium from deep in the soil and should be used as a major compost crop for fertilizer type compost along with legumes and fodder radish as a main part of the green in the compost. Huge with potassium.

My sister Laurie and her ole man Jim used to grow some. They added it to old Beam's (chesapeke bay retriever) food dish, and he munched it right down.

I understand there are 2 kinds. One kind makes no seeds and is very domesticated, the other kind can almost be invasive.

For those who compost with it and do sustainable soil, the wild kind is probably better. For those who want it as an herb, the domesticated kind may be best.