Symphytum: The Comfrey Thread

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by donothinggardening, Oct 21, 2014.

  1. Last comfrey harvest of the year coming up, I'll have some pictures to show what quantitiy I'm getting from plants; it's still their first year so I expect them to be more bountiful next year.
     
    I would like to have comfrey to utilize over the winter so I'm considering a few processing methods: chop up and store in freezer, turn into FPE brew, or get the liquid slurry concentrate from just the leaves decomposing... :confused_2:

     
  2. I think a great yet laborious route would be to get it bone dry and hand rub into a meal. Would keep for as long as you need (don't know the shelf life of FPEs) and would keep compounds like allantoin if ya need to make a poultice.

    Mind figuring how many cu ft (wet) ya get from one plant?
     
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  3. Yeah, forgot about secondary metabolites there for a second. Definitely shouldn't ferment. Nettle fermentations are sold in stores in France, so I'm assuming they have a, somewhat, decent shelf-life.
     
  4.  
    I averaged 1 c.y. per plant this season which included 4 cuttings from June through late September...
     
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  5. Righteous. For around $25 and one year, I may get 20 cu yds of superb compost. Can't beat that.

    Y'all know any quicker ways of making a meal than what I mentioned?
     
  6. TxGoat
     
    Because of the high levels of musilage in comfrey you cannot dry it like say alfalfa or hay. You have to hang it in such a way that the leaves do not tough otherwise you'll end up with a real mess on your hands.
     
    Look for photos of how tobacco is hung in order to dry it without having a moldy mess on your hands.
     
    Beginning in the 15th Century comfrey was grown in England for its musilage for book binding and later for postage stamps. Seeds were available from companies in London as early as 1790 or so. That's how important a crop it was long before it was used as a fertilizer which didn't happen until the the 1860's or so.
     
    CC
     
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  7. I just happened to be in a place with primarily tobacco fields. Hundreds of barns with tobacco hung purposefully, didn't look like too clean of an operation, but I don't smoke cigs anyway...
     
    What would be your go-to for preserving comfrey for winter use?
     
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  8. a mind explaining musilage use especially in the garden?

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  9. After drying, I'd say food processor. I broke some up between my hands that I had topdressed with and was still exposed so it dried....it was as if I rubbed fiberglass insulation inbetween my hands.
     
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  10. Water Dynamics of the Root Zone: Rhizosphere Biophysics and Its Control on Soil Hydrology
     
    Abstract
     
    Approximately 40% of total terrestrial precipitation transits the tiny volume of rhizosphere soil around plant roots before being transpired, making it one of the most hydrologically active regions of the biosphere. This study considers several findings at the root–soil interface that affect our understanding of water retention and flow in the root zone and hence the water relations of all vegetated soil profiles. Imaging methods, including neutron radiography and light transmission, are illuminating the dynamics of water content around plant root systems.
    \nThese methods, together with studies on samples of mucilage and mucilage-compound-amended soils, have provided increasing evidence that rhizosphere hydraulic properties differ from those of bulk soil. Changes in soil structure due to root growth, rhizodeposition, and repeated drying cycles change the pore size distribution and coat soil particles with organic compounds.
    \nSome of these compounds exhibit hydrophobic or hydrophilic behavior, depending on the soil water content, giving rise to the hysteretic-like behavior in the rhizosphere that has been observed in dynamic image sequences. Data from studies that consider the water retention properties of maize (Zea mays L.) mucilage from primary and nodal roots together with polymer gels are compared to consider the likely impact of mucilage on soil water release.
    \nRoots often generate and are intimately associated with flow paths for water and solutes in the soil, and vegetation is well known to exert a major influence on catchment hydrology. The potential use of vegetation to manage hydrologic processes at field scale is considered briefly as a way of influencing water outflow rates and engineering soils for particular purposes.
     
    More information to follow......
     
  11. This is the first year for my comfrey; I've taken 3-4 harvests off each. I got them as root cuttings, started in toilet paper rolls filled with soil, then transplanted outside after growing a couple leaves. When I planted them, I didn't really dig up a huge hole, nor prepared the soil with any amendments; just plain ol' red soil and water.
    This is the biggest one, I'll probably be getting c.y.s off it consistently. The largest leaves are at least 2ft long.
    IMG_1033.JPG
     
    Planted in a mulched area near the house and gets all the runoff from that corner.
    IMG_1032.JPG
     
    Meh
    IMG_1035.JPG
     
    3 stooges, these were planted in pretty hard soil, they'll come in eventually
    IMG_1037.jpg
     
    Supermarket lentil covercrop coming in nice and thick..
    IMG_1038.JPG
     
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  12. One thing to consider when deciding where you're going to plant your comfrey starts is how are you going to get water to the site. Comfrey is not a desert plant and it takes a lot of water to create the massive amount of biomass this plant can produce.
     
    Figure at least 10 gallons per plant each week minimum once the plant is established, i.e. usually your 2nd season. Even in Oregon I had to water almost every day to some degree to keep the momentum going.
     
  13. Well I'm near the coast, humid, barely above the water table and 60" of rain a year.

    Of course I'll still water when needed but does this sound inline with its mondo water needs?
     
  14. There's a difference between wanting to, "keep the momentum going" and the plant surviving. More water = more biomass. Mine are fine, but could be better if I kept up with watering like CC. Working with your hands, and gardening, are great because you get out only what you put in. I'm happy with my payoff vs effort right now, but I do know it can always improve.
     
  15.  
    Your situation sounds perfect but as you said you'll need to monitor things for the first couple of years. It's almost impossible to explain how fast this plant grows because it sounds like a 'grow story' but it will amaze you how fast it replaces the leaves after a cutting.
     
    A cutting involves removing all of the leaves down to the crown and within 4 or 5 weeks you're ready to take another cutting. It's just crazy.
     
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  16. How about growing these indoor in our gardens? How small of a pot can they go in and can they go through veg and flower light cycle with the plants? I only have one room and not much floor space left.


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  17. It's good to start them indoors in pots, but to continue to grow them indoors would kind of defeat the purpose of growing it in the first place.

    Comfrey is an "accumulator" plant, meaning that it mines minerals that are normally unavailable to most plants from deep in the soil strata. They have very deep root structures.
     
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  18.  
    I don't bother to chop. I do cut the stems off and toss back in the garden, then crunch it up and stuff in a grocery bag. That goes in the freezer. Usually from there to the worm bin, the whole frozen chunk. Ziplocks are kinda expensive, and I've found that the frost that gets on them not only adds some moisture to the bin but also gets decomposition going really quick.
     
    If the plant isn't overly large and you crunch it down good, You can fit a whole plant in a bag. 
     
    Wet
     
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