comfrey

andrewf75

Hi all,

After reading about this amazing plant I've just bought some "bocking 14" root cuttings off ebay.

Any tips on where and how to plant it? firstly is it fussy about sun? and does it make sense to plant them all together or spread them around? and should it go in a pot first?

Thanks, I'm assuming you moneysaving gardeners will have some of this in your gardens!

Derky_2

Excellent choice, this will supply you with free liquid feed for your plants for ever. Now! that's what I call money saving.


Plant in an area that gets plenty of sunlight if possible. It likes free draining moist soil so add some manure or similar before planting is a good idea.


I've used Bocking 14 for over 20 years now it can make a liquid feed which is almost identical in nutrients to Tomorite. You can use it on ANY plant.


I also feed it to my chickens, it was also used during the second world war to feed pigs.

Davesnave

Just a small warning that the liquor you'll produce if you go down the liquid feed route will smell very strongly, at least for the first year or so.

I bottled some and the niff did moderate somewhat, so that's something to consider for the future.

There again, when I lived in the city, if my neighbours were out on their back patio drinking and shouting at silly o'clock on warm summer nights, a few stirs of the comfrey barrel in the darkness could be.....err...useful. The drains were always blamed! :rotfl:

I'm sure Bocking14 will reward good husbandry, but just I grow mine as weed suppressant between the field and my 'utility area.' (junk heap) The sheep stop it spreading into the field. If you have any area that is weed-prone and difficult, that's a suitable place, as it will out-compete anything. Choose carefully as it's hard to eradicate.

As you only have cuttings, I might be inclined to start them in pots and get them away quickly, but the smallest piece of root will form a viable plant by early summer. Then it will be onwards and upwards, but at least you won't have them seeding.

forgotmyname

My small allotment plot is infested with the stuff.

Its a nightmare.

[Deleted User]

I have grown bocking 14 for 3 years and it is easily contained in its own space. Bocking 14 does not self seed, the other comfrey does seed and I would avoid any other than bocking 14. I have the most fantastic veg on the allotment and basically only use my comfrey and hm compost. The roots go down a very long way so best in the ground as that is how it gets the nutrients that we are after

Lawrence D Hills has produced a couple of interesting books about comfrey, I don`t use animal manure, my plot neighbours do and I have better plants than them and my beds don`t suffer as much from weeds. I get 3 good cuts of comfrey and lay the first lot around my berry plants and in the potato beds. I also cram a net bag with the leaves and stems and keep that in a full water butt. It floats so I just tie string and a stone to it. At home I make concentrated comfrey water and use it for all my tomatoes etc

Bees adore the flowers

Davesnave

forgotmyname wrote: »

My small allotment plot is infested with the stuff.

Its a nightmare.

Depends. If you're organic, killing it will be hard.

If you aren't, the standard, seeding variety succumbs to weedkiller. It will take a bit of persistence.

Ordinary comfrey was rampant here when we took over our acre garden. It had to be eradicated before we could introduce Bocking 14. Took no more than two years.

Apart from the large 'Russian' comfrey, there are numerous strains of smaller decorative forms, well-suited to ground cover in difficult shady or dry places. Here's part of a list taken from Horticulture Week :

"SPECIES AND CULTIVARS
S. asperum has branching stems and drooping clusters of ruby-red buds, which open to display intense gentian-blue flowers. Height 91 cm.
S. azureum has bright blue flowers in early summer. Height 45cm and spread 75cm.
S. caucasicum Award of Garden Merit (AGM) has grey-green pointed leaves and clusters of sky-blue tubular flowers, on arching stems. Height 61cm.
S. cordatum is a neat, clump-forming species with heart-shaped foliage and clusters of pale-yellow bells in spring. Height 20cm.
S. 'Goldsmith' has creamy-yellow bordered green leaves with pale blue flowers in May and June. Height 45cm.
S. grandiflorum forms a mound of dark green leaves and has cream flowers which appear in April. Height 50cm.
S. 'Hidcote Blue' forms excellent ground cover, smothering weeds in its path. It has branching stems that bear red buds, which open to reveal blue and white tubular flowers. Height 45 cm.
S. 'Hidcote Pink' is similar to 'Hidcote Blue' but bears pink and white flowers. Height 45cm.
S. ibericum has burnt-orange buds that open to reveal creamy-yellow bell-shaped flowers in spring. Height 30 cm.
S. ibericum 'All Gold' has large leaves that are yellow when young and gradually mature to green. Branched stems carry lilac tubular flowers in early to mid summer. Height 45 cm.
S. ibericum 'Blaueglocken' forms spreading clumps of heavily veined leaves. It has upright branching stems that bear coral-red buds, which open to reveal narrow tubular flowers of light blue in May-June. Height 38 cm.
S. ibericum 'Wisley Blue' has red buds and then pale cream and blue flowers in April and May. Height 20cm and spread 30cm.
S. 'Lambrook Sunrise' produces mounds of yellow foliage with blue flowers in spring and early summer. Looks particularly attractive under deciduous trees and in other shady places. Height 75cm.
S. officinale is common comfrey, the species most usually grown to provide green manure.
S. 'Rubrum' has dark-green leaves and red flowers from May to July. Cut back spreading shoots to the core of the plant after flowering to prevent it taking over. Height 30cm.
S. tuberosum is a clump-forming species. It produces pale-yellow bells on branched stems in spring and summer. Height 45cm."


I have a few of these doing a useful job in wild, shady places and under individual trees. I haven't tried, but I'd imagine they would make decent fertilizer too.