I want to grow some plants outside to help with what's happening inside. I know comfrey is something that greatly benefits the ladies but what else would work Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Stinging nettles, alfalfa, yarrow, borage, horsetail fern are the few I can recall offhand but here's a working link with a good amount of them. http://oregonbd.org/accumulators/ Make use of the link in my sig (Dukes Phytochemical Index) to look up the names of various plants you have an abundance of in your locale. Pretty easy looking up plants with that tool as long as you know the name for the plant in question (common or scientific).
Now do u make a tea with these of just let them soak in water for a week, strain and apply? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
The way I did my comfrey. I chopped the comfrey up so I ended up with aprox. 1/2- 5 gallon bucket of material. I put enough water in just to cover my material and let it set covered (vented) in the shade for about a month . I try and stir it once a day. I straind it through a 3 gallon paint strainer. I applied it at 1/4 cup to 5 gallons with my IPM. I do basically the same thing with horsetail ferns that I find in the forest.
If I had more room I would be growing barley, alfalfa, clover, and comfrey, Clover and comfrey being my top picks because the other two are fairly cheap and easy to buy. Clover and comfrey are something you just don't see many growers utilizing around my area.
Compost them, use them (chopped up preferably) in worm bins as microbial stimulants or even in your soil (in the mix), a mulch material or as a topdressing (mix 50/50 with vermi[compost] and apply ~2" on the surface, under the mulch). Botanical "teas" work well and are more useful imo than FPE's or long term soaks, as botanical teas retain the secondary aspects of the plant material used not just the elements. 24 - 36 hours works well for most materials, like kelp and nettle roots. If you want to make a long term liquid fertilizer from comfrey, take 3 buckets, drill holes in the bottom of one and then stack it in another bucket, without holes. Place your comfrey leaves into the bucket with holes and then stack the third bucket (without holes) on top of the comfrey filled one. Get a concrete block, bricks or anything small and heavy to place into the top bucket, making a press. After a while (2-3 weeks) the plant material will be turned into black liquid that can then be stored and/or mixed into water as needed for a foliar solution or drench. IIRC it's 1:20 for the ratio of comfrey syrup:water for application.
Hi Mama. Over in England and throughout Europe you can buy comfrey in pellet form. Why on earth it isn't sold like that here in the USA is beyond me. Even though I use lots of it in my garden and as a horse supplement I'd probably use even more of it if I could have a #50 lb sack out in the shed. J
As a side note regarding comfrey "syrup"; it doesn't smell badly when stored like comfrey soaked in water will. It seems to get past the "gagging stage" at that point and can be stored for long periods but the last thing you'd want to do is to soak comfrey in water inside your home. J
I could plant a half acre or so. I'd do raised beds. Anyone know of a buyer for 100% organic comfrey? The land I'm situated on hasn't seen a chemical salt in ... IDK... maybe a hunert year or so. I seem to recall talking to YGF about this a couple of years ago.
I'd be down to buy a bag of the finished product and maybe a root to start my own. It never hurts to have a trusted source.
This is how Im going to do mine this year for sure. Just store in a cool place not refrigerated? Yeah my way stinks even outside you can smell it for aways. The bucket was around 40yrds away from my house and when the wind would blow just right my wife would ask me what that smell was. Id say not sure and try and relocate my bucket.