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Orange comfrey

josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
in Plants

My comfrey plants (Bocking 14) are four years old.  Every year, they get this orange coating on the underside of the leaves.  The plants seem healthy in every other respect, and I've never found it on any other plants.  For the last three years I've been composting it and making liquid feeds from it, and it's only just occurred to me that it might be harmful to the other plants.  Please tell me I needn't dig it all out and burn it.

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited June 2018
    Does the orange come off on your hand? If it's rust then Alys says to ditch the lot.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Yes it does, if I rub it hard.  So what harm do you suppose it's doing?  As I said, there's none apparent.  As the roots will have gone deep in four years, and I don't want to disturb the neighbouring plants, I'm not going to take the spade to it without a good reason.  And how do I stop it happening to the next lot?
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Just looked up your Alys reference, and a few others, and the jury's hung.  Some authorities agree with Alys, others say it's harmless, and there's no equivocation between.  So I think I'll go with my own experience and leave it be.  But thanks for taking the trouble to reply, especially as you're the only one.
  • pbffpbff Posts: 433
    Luckily I've never had any problems with rust on my comfrey, but I grow the 'Hidocte Blue' cultivar.
    If it's causing no problems to your comfrey then I'd just leave it be.
    🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌
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