GR, Next time you come this way on a weekend, let me know and I'll send you home with enough comfrey to last you a while. I have been able to harvest a couple of contractor's trash bags full every 3 or so weeks. I've got a garden plot at a community garden, and everyone thinks it's a weed LMFAO! They think I'm crazy when I'm out there stuffing garbage bags full and I'm laughing all the way to my compost pile. chunk
GoneRooty Chunk's idea of a 'bag of comfrey' will make 25-30 gallons of very concentrated tea. Not syrup but it's completely black. Tonight I applied my big test using comfrey as part of an AACT against the advice of a couple of experts - ahem. 3.75 gallons of water 1 quart of aloe vera juice 3 quarts of comfrey tea concentrate 1 quart of Horsetail Fern tea concentrate - which by the way actually smells far worse than comfrey! The usual kelp meal, alfalfa meal, hi-fungal compost Organic Blue Agave nectar for the carbohydrate No fish hydrolysate or anything else for that matter. I did add 1/2 cup of BioAg Pure Fulvic Acid immediately prior to applying it to the soil. We'll see. LD
Thanks for the advice everybody. Im glad i posted this question because its turning into an informative thread on comfrey fpe's. Much respect goes out to Stankie, LD, Chunk, Wolverine.
Hey, My friend brought a few velvetleaf mullein plants to me Thinking they were comfrey. I will get them growing if only to maybe prevent pneumonia? Some say smoking it will help one quit smoking pot. Doh -why on Earth would I want to do that? Mullein has some good things to make teas for the plants right? Thanks, url
URL, it is an abundant weed around me. In late summer last year I collected several wheelbarrows full of it for my compost heap for diversity. It does not break down fast but is said to be a helpfull plant. Have not tried smoking it either. Kind of off topic but around where I live the county sends out tractors to cut grass and brush along our roads. The plant material is then very easy to collect and provides a diverse start to a compost heap.....MIW
Hey, When making tea from dried comfrey leaf either that dried by mee or made from that which was sent to me by the professional comfrey farmer, I found the water turned very dark within an hour, and black within 4 hrs . The fresh leaf I soak takes much longer over 24 to tint the water lime green. Is the quality of the leaf the reason for this? As what I am soaking now is what is coming from my soil and is probably under ammended,especially compared to th comfrey experts skill of making leaf. So today I set about massive dosing the comfrey beds with hopes to manage thses plants best. Please offer suggestions to the max doses of everything that I can put on the comfrey. At one time I plan to test a max dose will probably include: soaked roft rock phosphate Organic espoma cottonseed meal soaked Alfalfa tea neem tea molasses composted chicken manure If comfrey can tolerate high doses I wonder how high? As was the urge to slash a plant with PM back, like edward scissors hands .. I am grateful the neem kelp tea worked. The silica of comfrey is on a level that approaches liquid silica correct? The silica levels of bamboo litter exceed most, correct? What kind of paper shredder might work for macerating bamboo leaves. Are worms the only wayto manage this leaf material? I suppose lacto would help ? Can a paper shredder do this sort of job, I have the desire to keep going and pray. yes I am still "crazy"but things are changing. I am giving away the plants and will simply study for awhile. So I am grateful, thanks, url
Way back when, LD stated Comfrey doesn't need to be *dosed* and doesn't care for added nutrients. The whole 'dynamic accumulator' thing. But, if you feel the need for nutrients and this is also from LD, the simplest and most elegant solution, is to simply trim the plant and let the leaves lay where they fall. The plant fertilizes itself. I've done this and it seems to work quite well. The leaves start breaking down within days and decomposing. I've done both, clear cutting the entire plant a few inches above ground level and leaving a few small leaves. The ones where I left a few leaves seemed to recover a bit faster by a few days. But within a couple 3 weeks you couldn't tell they had been cut at all. Wet