Hey, Soaked 8 cups of Thorvin Kelp meal in 5 gal. I added some sugar / stirred occassionally; and after 2 weeks 5 gal off that. and added citric acid 1 tbas /gal to store. Added 5 more ga water to these dregs and will wait another 2 weeks for results. Will mix both to make consistent. My question is to the max dilution to keep the tea stored in a rate that is controllable and usable by iliterate. Stubborns mules who need it so simple. ( They fear to try new stuff and I am pretty much done trying to prove anything.. still I have a moral obligation to not give out a tea that is too strong. That is all I am going to do to "help" is porvide a dose and one MUST do the experiment oneself. Still I think having a standard measurement could possibly be done with color. I don't have the capabilities to make a color chart of what tea should look like what shade color but it seems like a good project for Wee Puppy. The alfalfa tea is obviously murkier the older it gets and 2 weeks is a good amount of time I suppose. Is there an advantage to letting the ferment go for 1 month? More? The comfrey is now lacking in my yards due to the deer liking to eat it. I am about to resort to getting seed and planting massive. We have the room and why not? Its for the weed and that is way more valuable than the acres of land there doing nuttin much as good as comfrey. I don't have time to cultivate the roots. Is seeded variety so invasive that I could be a burden long after I am gone? There are no plan for the land but I am hesitant to plant the seeded variety of comfrey. Which others are a possible substitute for comfrey,please? Thanks, url With kelp-the redder the better; and I have pushed kelp teaon my own plants with trepedation but luckily to a good result. Still I prefer to let others kill their own plants.
"Is seeded variety so invasive that I could be a burden long after I am gone?" Absolutely, without a doubt. You want to plant the sterile variety. The seeded variety will overtake any vegetation nearby and the seeds will be scattered for great distances. This is a plant that is impossible to control without chemical applications. Do not use the seeded varieties, I am sure your neighbors do not want to have this plant invade their property. Just because the deer have eaten the top of your plants, they may still be alive, the roots are probably still dormant and will re sprout in spring. PW
Comfrey-14 (I ferget) is the sterile variety. I'm pretty sure one can score the seeds at Mountain Rose Herbs. For sure they can score the dry product. Yeh man, urlove, what pw is telling you is gospel. Not only are the roots (rhizomes) still alive under the soil, they are growing horizontally everywhere under your feet as I type this and you read it. I'm reminded of the similarity of kudzu to comfrey when discussing how invasive non-sterile comfrey is. Something along the lines of, "you won't kill it even with napalm". It's that invasive and you will not be able to contain it. Someone will trip through here with the specific strain of non-invasive comfrey for you. As for the non-sterile strains, be wise.
Get the sterile variety! The only way to get rid of comfrey is to confine pigs where it is. If you leave so much as a 2 inch-long chunk of root, it will come back! And the deer are smart. Comfrey is a healing herb (although eating too much of it can be bad for you). Try smooshing up some comfrey leaves as a poultice to put on the next burn you get- speeds up the healing amazingly! (personal experience) Granny
Comfrey Bocking 14 can be purchased here Comfrey, Russian Live Root Cutting (Bocking 14 Cultivar), organic this is the sterile non-seeding type.
Ok so thanks all of you for harmonizing on tha vote :no seeded varieties of comfrey. So I went on the search for comfrey plants. While I have been preparing the hole in the ground at my new home; I looked everywhere locally for some rooted plants to buy. It seemed I was best set to buy from Horizonherbs. I was impressed with their picture of a real nice set of rows of comfrey planted and happy to consider their great deal of 20 plants for $35. I suppose they are first cuttings this year rooted. Then after more searching for a local source; I found one nice fellow on another organic gardening board who told me about an East coast source. So it's not as far away as Horizonherbs; but far enough. Yes, I like to support the relatively local efforts to grow this wonderful plant. He is located in the mts of NC, near the beautiful and cold Nantahala River. Please consider giving your friends on the East coast this guy's link. He is apparently good at growing comfrey and ships plants that are 2 yrs old. I am thinking I will get some of the older plants just because they are stronger. Coe's Comfrey | The Legendary Herb of Life The website was extremely difficult for my friend to find ; and it was a stoke of good luck for me to have been given this tip about Coe's Comfrey. So if you have friends on the East coast finding comfrey hard to get, please share the link. Thanks all, url Apparently his web designer's SEO skills are not as good as his ability to grow comfrey.
Ok, so this fellow in NC grows Bocking #4 strain of Russian comfrey, Symphytum Peregrinum. Would anyone care to comment on any significant difference between bocking #4 and bocking #14? I am going to guess that bocking #14 is the only sterile variety? Is bocking #4 a seeding type? Thanks all, url
[quote name='"urlove"']Ok, so this fellow in NC grows Bocking #4 strain of Russian comfrey, Symphytum Peregrinum. Would anyone care to comment on any significant difference between bocking #4 and bocking #14? I am going to guess that bocking #14 is the only sterile variety? Is bocking #4 a seeding type? Thanks all, url[/quote] URL that is correct #14 is the one to get unless you got room to let that go wild and once you have it you, you have it for life. Use gloves when picking leaves. It is my understanding too much can be a bad thing on the skin. It is knitbone after all.
You can make your own rooted clones off of a bocking-14 plant. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT97u7oJIGI]Gardening - Comfrey plant propogation - new plants - YouTube[/ame]
Ok thanks all, My situation is however hard to witness... The only comfrey plants I have available now in mass is the bocking #4. That I have lots of leaf ;and new mature roots stock being planted in new location where I am having to build soil to plant. It kinda sucks to start over but hey....where I am at is ok Only have one bocking #14 from which to take cutttings and thuink they won't produce in time for this grow's finish. It will support all the successful clones however took very well thanks to being persistant and trying again and again no matter what stage the Moon is in! har har yes the jokes on me ... I also have a question about hours in the dark. But this will really show where I haven't read enough... I am cracking my teethe trying to keep up... Ok so if I give the girls 13 hrs of dark then have them under lights 18 hrs then into 13 hrs dark is that going to throw them off? I want to know what stickie informs me about varying the balance of dark time in proportion to light. Is the required dark measured to be required every 24 hrs or can the interval between 12 plus hrs dark be varied at all? Yes I am wanting to be variable in stimulating flowering and don't understand if I can keep them in flower mode with 12 plus dark less often than every 12 hrs. This question is embarassing to ask but I have got to figure it out. For ex if I have the flowering in the dark 13 hrs then in light 18 then 13 is that stupid? I suppose it is. I just need to stick to protocal as hard as it seems for me. I will learn the hard way usually. I only have 250 hsp multi spectrum bulb and a couple of 65 warm cfls untl I get my 400 watt MH back from the grower who borrowed it. He keeps failing at taking cuttings( he don't listen to girls and hates computers,DOH) so I am waiting for the horse to drink and give me back my lamp... hell its spring and he lives where he can set outside. Ok so I have to move plants around to get enough light and guess a bit longer under light might help. But that throws off the 12 hr under light limit I suppose comes with the 12 plus hrs of dark. If I give 12 plu hrs dark every 18 hrs is that enoug to keep them in flower mode? So the ewc/crushed perlite rooted better than plain coir it seems but then again IDK. Maybe it was the heavy aloe and kelp /alf soak. So if at this late stage with 5 days into flower I can trust comfrey tea horestail alf and kelp all gave good stuff.. is rushing to make some horsetail soak worth the last min offering of Ca? I ran out of the long soaked Horsetail and am doing a short order rush by warming and shaking as well as ewc/ agave with dash of kelp to coax the Ca out of the shavegrass. Am I on target? Or is my trancelike state as disturbing to witness? Smoking bad leaf sucks. Wish me luck, Thanks,url
I was talking to a CSA farmer on another site and he uses Bocking #4 and claims that it does not re-seed. Apparently it is used mainly as a feed supplement for livestock. Hope that helps Sam
You want to keep it on a 18/6 or 20/4 light schedule. When you're ready to flower switch to 12/12. Using any other light schedule will stress your plants, and if you gradually increase the night hours (18-6, then 17-7, 16-8, until you get to 12/12) you'll delay flowering and probably get lower yield. These plants like the switch from 18 to 12 hours of light, and will flower more profusely this way. There may be ways to mess with the light schedule without stressing you're plants, but you won't see too many recommendations for it around here..
Hey urlove, if you wanna see some crazy lighting ideas, check out the posters Swami and Loki7. Those guys are certainly a little different and seem to be very on-point.
Thanks, I appreciate the help. I have a huge hole dug for the comfrey and want to ammend it as heavily as possible within reason. It's probably 3 feet deep in one corner and probably deep enough to put some hot items in the mix before I plant. Not sure how much alfalfa will make too much heat. So I will stcik to 2 c/ cu ft. I also have some fermented alfalfa over 1 month that I will probably put iknto the comfrey bed. Less likely to heat up eh, Aso will spray an act on the bed once its mixed. Would using a lacto before (afew days or more) before using an act be. Helpful in speeding the soil's nutrient cycling (heating)? Went straight to 12/12 and 1 week in see lots of flowers setting Yayayayayayayay. Is it true the plants might double in size over the next 7 week? I don't remember its been so long.... Thanks url durgahands
Slightly off-topic but I'm not sure it deserves an entire thread... I swear I saw mention of a pre-made comfrey concentrate available for purchase. Am I crazy, or can one buy such a product? P.S. I've seen the 1oz dropper bottles for medicinal uses...not what I mean, obviously.
Hey, Buying comfrey dried leaves was certainly a relief to do when I needed it; and one pound only goes so far. Thanks to all who tolerate my appearances of posting tmi and in the wrong places. I realize today that again I have posted in a sticky.. yikes it's embarrassing to be me. Oh well, sorry again... I will try to correct but somebody went and quoted me there so there is no way to get the wrong post off a sticky without some help. Will go there to correct that after I get the Asperger's cat to the vet. My life is not ordinary, and as uncomfortable as it is to witness. Dh
Thanks, Hap...I did come across the syrup but it appears the closest I can get to "pre-made" would be buying dried leaves and going from there.
Lumper was talking about making comfrey tea from dried leaves that he cured and jarred. He said that at least visually, it was the same as using fresh. Rock on dude.