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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)

flower wrote: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)

Quaker comfrey was suggested to me , would that be another name for common weed comfrey?? or the russian ???

I really don't know.....
the stuff I've got I inherited and it spreads all over the place

Ok might regret this but who wants some comfry???
My patch i planted last year took off well and the plants were sent to me by someone on another forum so i am happy to pass some on.
Not sure of the varity but if people want then let me know by PM, can probably send out enough for 4 people this year[/img]

What a coincidence! I've just received some comfrey seeds from the UK. They came from Chiltern Seeds and I got two types - weed comfrey and Russian Comfrey (Blocking 14). The Russian stuff is very difficult to get to set seed so is less invasive. Both are good for all the purposes suggesting in this thread. We'll be using it for fertiliser, and for chicken and goat fodder.

Note that you don't get many seeds in the packet. The most common way to propagate is via root cuttings as per the Wikipedia article. Unfortunately, comfrey is unheard of here, so nobody had a root for me.

Both types will work really well. Although I wouldn't grow it on my plot I prefer to go to the waste ground and take it from there, its a bit of a space hogger being large. I just dig the laeves into the ground below stuff I'm growing, always works great.

Mine is growing on the ground arround my compost bin as the deep roots draw up the stuff leaking from the bin and then i harvest the leaves and get a good cycle, the plants capture the bin leakage, the leaves give a strong liquid feed then get composted where the next generation of leaves capture the leakage, they grow good and fast with the feeding from the bin that would otherwise be lost to the bit of ground that no one grows in.

Gidday

Hey Pilsbury, you are smarter than you realize.

Gee thanks

Gidday

That is the biggest trouble with a compost bin or pile, the loss of that leachate is almost a crime.