Been doing some reading but cant find anything on what is considered a climate that is too extreme for comfrey....can anyone tell me how this plant does in a desert climate? I live in Az where the summer temps top out at 110-115 degrees. I know that JakRustle lives in the southwest but he has not been on since April...any help is appreciated.
[quote name='"Dumdumdummy"']Been doing some reading but cant find anything on what is considered a climate that is too extreme for comfrey....can anyone tell me how this plant does in a desert climate? I live in Az where the summer temps top out at 110-115 degrees. I know that JakRustle lives in the southwest but he has not been on since April...any help is appreciated.[/quote] Try planting it under a partly shady area. Under a large tree if possible (to control the temps). Then make sure it has adequate water and im sure it'll suffice. From what i understand they are very vigorous plants. Good luck!
Thanks Sean! I want to order some roots but I only really plan to try to grow one. Im gonna give it a shot.
[quote name='"Dumdumdummy"']Thanks Sean! I want to order some roots but I only really plan to try to grow one. Im gonna give it a shot.[/quote] Good luck my friend! Its also on the top of my list. Currently im using taro in substitution but i love my seaweed ferments! Cant do without em!
[quote name='"SeanDawg"'] Good luck my friend! Its also on the top of my list. Currently im using taro in substitution but i love my seaweed ferments! Cant do without em![/quote] Seaweed ferments? Do you collect the seaweed yourself? ~ tree
[quote name='"Tree dogg"'] Seaweed ferments? Do you collect the seaweed yourself? ~ tree[/quote] Yes. I have a reef right outside my house that i normally collect my native seaweeds from. It's actually a little more than just seaweed. It's a bsp + seaweed ferment. Possuum and I went into quite great detail on a different thread if you'd like to read it. http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1052033-plant-hormone-production.html
Well Im in San Diego today and I figured that I would try to find a place where I could get my hands on some comfrey plants before I drive back over to Az...its alot more difficult than I thought!! This is CQ's old stomping ground (from back in the day)...wish he was still around to steer me in!! Anyhow, the one nursery that I got ahold of that sells it threw up some major flags while I was on the phone with them today....here's phone conversation: Me: Do you sell comfrey plants? Lady: Yes, we have some in stock if you want to pick them up. Me: Are they roots or are they plants? Lady:These are plants in containers. Since you are taking them to Arizona, I recommend you just growing them out in containers. You should be fine. Me: No, I want them to gather nutrients so I can use them for fertilizer so I will be putting them in the ground. Lady: Thats fine, you'll get plenty of nutrition to the plant in the container as long as its big enough. Me: Uh...okay. By the way, is this bocking 14 or true comfrey. Lady: Its true...but you'll be okay. Me: Oh...okay thanks for your time. Looks like Im ordering from Horizon Herbs on the net after all....
Lol, i learned really quickly that the rest of the world doesnt think like we organic growers on GC. I dont even think of asking people for green papayas or green bananas because their typical question will be, "why do you need green papayas?". An it'll basically come down to me telling them that i have this super secret magical plant that cures just about everything but our government doesn't want you to know about it. So they made it illegal, patented the information, and hid it from the general public to keep them in the dark from knowing about it. Lol Sorry, sometimes i think it's funny to go on wild rants like that. I try to be an artist painting a vivid picture of description in your mind with as much spectacular detailed information as i possibly can, then i piss all over it like R Kelly does to little girls while he sings dirty details to his wife on MTV with the whole world watching live while he continues to sing as if nothing happened at all. Yeah, thats how i like to describe things... You know, just for fun.
Sean, I read that post earlier while I was out with my kids and started laughing my ass off!!! My kids just shook their heads at me.
I whent back and read this link a bit...Im gonna have to sit down and read it again so I can digest it better.... While Im in Cali, we have been hitting the beach pretty much every chance we get. Im thinking that I want to collect some seaweed tomorrow and take it back home with me...how can I use it and how much should I gather? I was gonna load up a 5 gallon bucket and put the lid on it so it wont stink up the truck....what are directions for using it after that? Thanks!
Great Idea! First off wait til the final day that you have to go back to collect your samples. Try to get it as fresh as possible (unless you're going to try and dry it to make it into a meal before use). Try to find the largest species of brown kelp that you can. I have made a few different recipes with the native seaweeds that i have. First method was a "tea". Basically washed it to get off the excessive salt, then i threw it in a bucket. filled enough water to cover the seaweed and let it sit. after a few days the water is very viscus and dark. strain off the plant material and there you go. seaweed tea! Im still experimenting. So far even a 50/50 dilution ratio is completely safe as a foliar or a soil drench. But by far the BSP + Seaweed ferment is my favorite! Im sure you know how to do a natural farming ferment (Gil Carandang method). Basically i made all the plant materials in equal proportions covered the material with sugar or molasses (mainly to feed the microbes to make for break down safer and faster). which ever you choose. added my Lacto culture. and filled with water. let it ferment for a week or two or 3 months whatever lol. Strain and complete! Use only 6 oz per gallon. I use exclusively as a foliar. Im sure you can use higher ratios but i wouldnt recommend going any higher. The spent plant material can be added to either your worm bin or compost or recycled soil or whatever.
You read my mind! Im trying to figure out how hard it would be to make it into a meal. Can I just wash it, let it dry and then crumble it up by hand or would I have ot do much more?
[quote name='"Dumdumdummy"'] You read my mind! Im trying to figure out how hard it would be to make it into a meal. Can I just wash it, let it dry and then crumble it up by hand or would I have ot do much more?[/quote] Not very hard. Wash it well. Then put it on a screen rack of some sort. To make sure its getting enough air to dry evenly without molding. It takes a lot longer to dry than common plant material ie comfrey. When it is completely dry you can cut it up small enough to add to a food processor of some sort and grind it down. After that you're pretty much good to go. That meal, will then be best used in the soil because of its algenic acid im told. That helps it hold much more water to keep your soil damp. You dont have to make it into a meal to bsp ferment it tho. Just kind of chop it really fine or put it in a food processor or blender or something. Good luck my friend!
Okay...I had typed up a long post only to lose it when I lost my internet connection.... Here is the abreviated version of what I was trying to say. I gathered enough kelp from the beach yesterday and filled a 5 gallon bucket with it. I submerged it in water from the ocean to transport home and once I got home I dumped it out (it came out slimy) and replaced it with fresh water. Im going to wash it again today and store it to get some kelp tea. After I get the tea, I will dry most of it out and make a kelp meal. The rest I want to use for a ferment...but I gotta learn how to do that. I read somewhere that EM-1 is only used for speeding up the composting process in fermenting and without it, the ferment will take 4-6 weeks to make...did I understand that correctly?
You did understand that correctly. I'm sure that many seaweeds work well, but real kelp meal is made from brown kelp - Ascophylum Nodosum. I'm pretty sure that Seandog he makes his own seaweed items from the beach, and I think I've seen Mrs. Skunk Patronus Saying that she uses her own harvested seaweed as well. It might be worth speaking with them? J
Thanks Jerry! Im pretty sure that I got the brown kelp also. Its pretty much the only thing I ever see out along the beaches I go to in Cali. Man....just talking about the beach....something about beach communitites in the summer time. I could see myself being a beach bum real easily. I dont surf but I just love being around the water and not to mention the beautiful girls of summer....anyways... so I have the kelp in a 5 gallon bucket and I have dumped/filled the water 3-4 times now to get rid of the salt as much as I can. The kelp has broken down by quite a bit over the passed few days. How worried should I be about salt in the solution that I drain off? I read an article where a gardener was saying that its not an issue but I thinking that she was talking along the lines in ground gardening and not an in-container evironment. Will the rate of dillution (is that a word?) cut down on harmful effects of the natural salts in the kelp? I also got one of those multi-tiered drying racks. I plan to lay out the kelp and just let them dry, dry and dry some more. Im in no rush to use so I got time.
Hey, I have been observing to water my comfrey regularly. And see what LD meant about comfrey in his remark "the water consumption rate is as high as it gets ". Assuming the desert dwellers have enough water available, the comfrey seems to be a plant one could plant just about anywhere especially if mulched well enough. I want to say that the gentleman at Coe's Comfrey is a one man walking dictionary when it comes to knowing Russian comfrey and the fine work of Lawrence D Hills. He sells huge roots that are mature. He offers 1 yr old plants as well as 2, 3, and 4 year old plants. His plants are bocking #4, which apparently has less allantoin; but is hardier? I have had both; yet only have #4 now. It is still a massive leaf producer. Apparently it is the NC prefered bocking for use as fodder as many people raise chickens, goats, rabbits and other live stock there. I am not sure how much difference the levels of allantoin there is between the bocking #14 and #4 ; so anyone out there have an opinion or a source source to read about thatdifference if it is significant to our purposes? Are there any other experienced bocking #4 and #14 tea makers who have seen any quantitative differences between these two varieties? The size of mature plants would seem obvious as an advantage to both getting more leaf faster. Bigger roots :more leaf. Is it possible that larger roots are more tolerant of extreme heat? But it does always boil down to available water doesn't it. Thanks,
URL dH nice questions- why not invite mr. Coe's to our forum for some details about these plants? Interesting topic for sure. I found wild patches of borage and comfrey near my area, and will post some pictures of comfrey's habitat. Definitely a significant impact on the landscape thanks to that plant.... /no thanks LOL ..............................