comfrey

[pastyman]

can someone help with a few questions about making a plant feed from comfrey. how long do you leave it in the bin. to what ratio do you dilute.can you put the leaves etc in the compost bin.what vegi should i use it on. thanks for any help.

[Andy Hamilton]

VEry rough measurements here. One 30 litre bin full of water one small rucksack full of comfrey leaves. The sort of rucksack that you see school kids carrying that size.

I stuck in the comfrey left it until it stank then started to use it. I use it on my tomato plants, onions, squashes etc.

I found that using it on my beans made the leaves go yellow so I stopped using it, the same thing happened with pepper plants. Was not sure if it was because of the comfrey feed but aired on the side of caution and started to use a seaweed feed on them instead.

I would not want to waste the leaves on the compost bin much better for a feed.

YOu can also feed yourself on comfrey use it like spinach in cooking. There are reports that it causes liver failure but as far as I can work out this is only in the sort of doses that no one would eat anyway.

[ohareward]

One of our top organic gardeners, Kay Baxter of Koanga Gardens has put out a book, 'Design your own orchard' and in it is a chapter on comfrey. She says that comfrey is very high in Potassium and is very good for all fruit production, tomatoes,(lower leaves of tomatoes that have wilted means a lack of Potassium), potatoes and broadbeans. She goes on to say that comfrey in very beneficial as an animal feed, or as a liquid feed or just laid down under the potatoes in their trenches.
The ideal time to plant comfrey is in the Spring.
Pigs seem to do very well on comfrey, being low in fibre and high in protein. Comfrey also grows better when fertiliserd with pig manure and also chook manure. Also it can be fed to chooks. It has been said that poultry and comfrey are symbiotic. (They love each other). Hope this helps anybody wanting to plant comfrey.

[Jack]

Gidday

Well comfrey is top of the list as far as I am concerned. Many years aogo it got a bad name for damaging the livers of some people, but it was a fashion thing at the time and some people are so stupid that they will overdo any fashion. The roots of the plant are even stronger in goodness than the leaves and people were simply overdosing on it. I think the damage some people are doing their kidneys these days from drinking far too much water is a very similar case.

I am very surprised to hear that it turned beans yellow but I have not used it very much on beans so thanks for that info.

Yes, for the garden the easiest ways to use it is like has been mentioned, under spuds or anything else you are planting or else in the bucket of water till it stinks. It is very hard to suggest the rates because my rucksack or drum may be bigger than yours, but I just cut enough to fill a small onion bag and drop it in a 20 litre bucket of water then water that onto the plants.

Here is a fairly good link about comfrey:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comfrey

Anayways I reckon it is bloody good stuff. Here's a true story from way back.

We had an orphaned lamb and were feeding it with a bottle. It got arthritis in both it's front knees. They were very swollen and stiff and obviously bloody sore. Oh! By the way, it is not uncommon for lambs to get a form of arthitis which starts normally from a navel infection shortly after birth.

Anyways, this poor little lamb was in a really bad way. The normal treatment is with injections of penicilin which I gave it but without any relief. The condition kept getting worse until the infection actually burst out as horrible pussy scabbie sores. When the second lot of penicilin didn't work I was left with the option of tapping it on the head. I felt so sorry for the poor little bugger as he was such a battler and seemed determined to keep going I had to try everything else first.

I got some comfrey leaves and brought them just to the boil, then placed some of the slightly cooled leaves onto each knee then soaked a strip of an old sheet in the juice before tying it on as a bandage. That didn't work as it fell straight off. Did the same again but this time I tied both bandages together over the lambs back. I must admit, he looked pretty hard case like this too.

I left in on for several days and when I got around to having another look, as I undid the bandages the huge scab came off with it leaving a small pussy hole in each knee surounded with a large area of bare inflamed skin. The lamb was also walking noticably better as well so I repeated the whole proceedure and left things for another few days. This time when the bandages came off, the holes had shrunk to not much more than that of a small nail but were perfectly clean and on the surounding skin we could see tiny little new hairs and wool starting to grow. In other words, what the penicilin could not cure the comfrey had completely cured.

One of the common names of comfrey is bone knit, indicating that is can help broken bones to heal as well. Even though some people claim comfrey can harm the liver, in fact it is only if very large and prolonged doses are taken internally and in particularly the root, will it cause any problem. In other words stupid use or abuse.

Well I guess you could say that I am a bit of a fan of comfrey.

[Milims]

I saw something somewhere (Can't remember where) where you make a comfrey press by filling a length of soil pipe with comfrey and then dropping a 2 litre bottle of water into the top of it and leaving it to slowly work its way down compressing and squeezing as it goes. think you have to use a stop end piece for the pipe with a couple of large ho;les drilled into it and this is susspended above a bucket. Suppose you could fasten it to a wall with brackets and then you don't need to worry about it falling over :-D

As for comfrey's healing properties, it's one of natures healing promoters, like lavender, and as has been said before is fine in small doses internally.
Large doses are toxic, but hey so is oxygen! lolol

Chris and Helen

[ohareward]

Comfrey and potatoes. Another use for comfrey tea is to put in a watering can and pour over the potato leaves about every two weeks as the leaves will then soak it up.

[hedgewizard]

Milims! What an absolutely cracking idea! Don't want a large and stinky bin but this sounds ideal. What a star!

[Shirley]

Interesting story Jack!

We had a bucketful of the comfrey water last year - the smell wasn't a big problem for us as we kept it quite far away. That said, I like the idea that Milims posted too!

I haven't got any comfrey though - it's on my wishlist, especially after reading that the chooks will love it too

[Smooth Hound]

We once had a duck that somehow managed to break one of its legs it was hanging by the skin , near enough a clean break, we lined it up best we could, wrapped it round and round with comfrey leaves, splinted over that, and it repaired itself, cant remember how long it took it was yrs ago, but i remember being quite amazed. (cant find a happy emoticons)

[chadspad]

Havent got any comfrey but have loads of nettles, would that work in the same fashion & quantities? (not wanting to hijack the thread but didnt want to start new one for just one question!)

[Jack]

Gidday

I believe not.

Comfrey has some chemicals in it at concentrations that are found very few if any other plants.

[chadspad]

Knew I had seen it somewhere! This site says nettles do same job as comfrey.

Nettles
you can make a couple of "harvests" a year from your nettle patch.
Pack a dustbin with the cut leaves, and cover with water.
Said to prevent disease, as well as promoting health plant growth
rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes), and minerals; good source of nitrogen (for just about anything!)

http://www.keirg.freeserve.co.uk/diary/tech/manure.htm

[flower]

where you make a comfrey press by filling a length of soil pipe with comfrey and then dropping a 2 litre bottle of water into the top of it and leaving it to slowly work its way down compressing and squeezing as it goes. think you have to use a stop end piece for the pipe with a couple of large ho;les drilled into it and this is susspended above a bucket. Suppose you could fasten it to a wall with brackets and then you don't need to worry about it falling over :-D


Chris and Helen

if you use a wine bottle, filled with sand and ties with string to the top of the pipe, you top up the pipe with leaves now and then, drop the bottle in to mash them down and can retieve it easily.
fix the pipe to the sunny side of the shed cos heat makes it work faster.
a plastic bottle, top cut off, pierce a hole in the bottom can be 'gaffer taped' to make a perfect end stop.
if you then piercs a hole in a largish, screw top jar and slot in a drinking straw from here to the hole in the plastic bottle, the evil smelling liquid is less likely to make you retch
saving similar jars means you can simply unscrew, exchange lids and put the next jar under the pipe.

[Cassiepod]

Where do you get comfrey to start comfrey patch?

[flower]

there are two different types.
one is the common 'weed' comfrey....someone in your local allotments will almost certainly be over run with the stuff and gladly let you help yourself.
presicely because it is such a thuggish plant, someone clever (possibly the HDRA) has introduced a new, more easily contained variant.
I believe they call it Russian Comfrey.
If you can possibly afford to do so I would get that one....try the HDRA website (google should be able to find it although it may be called the organic society now)