Morning All, sorry to jump in here but could someone tell me if it's possible to grow Comfrey in a pot. I ask this as I don't have a lot of room and would like to make my own plant food plus encourage the bee's. I use the liquid from my compost barrel at the moment but it's never enough.
The Hozelock Biomix gets a mention in the 25 May Amateur Gardening magazine! It appears on page 13 under the article 'How to make comfrey tea'. One other advantage that I have found with it is that it makes liquid compost very quickly, in just a couple of weeks. I am nearly through my first batch of 8 litres or so of tea and have been feeding many of my plants with it, including Clematis, container roses and bush tomatoes. The second lot of tea comprises banana skin and nettles heads and is about a week old so I will hopefully get a good succession of liquid compost available for the whole season.
I've seen a lot of discussions and videos about the benefits of Comfrey and how to make the tea etc. But what seems to be missing is the mix ratio's. i.e
In a 10 litre bucket, how much Comfrey should I add? Half way, full, 3 good size plants etc.? Once the tea is ready, what is the dilution ratio per 5 litres of water? Thimble, cup, 0.5ltrs How often should it be used to feed the plants? Once a week, month, season? Can you overfeed, and what happens if you do? Are there any plants you should not use it on?
I don't think it's an exact science Phil! My composter advises 2kg of solids to 10 litre of water but think of it this way - if you are adding just comfrey leaves, 2kg is an awful lot of leaves, but if you add say a banana skin you'll soon get to your 2kg. So you can see from that example that applying weight measurements to this scenario just doesn't really work. So I would say just put in enough composting solids to have the 10 litre of water cover it. When you use the finished liquid feed it's advised that you use 10 parts water to one part liquid compost but again I wouldn't have thought you need to be too precious about it, as long as the mixture isn't so strong that you poison the plants nor too weak that it becomes a futile exercise! And frequency of feeding? As often as you'd normally feed your plants is probably the way to go. I'm no expert, just applying common sense really, and others may be along to put in their penny's worth.
Exactly, LL! I cut enough to fill a bucket when pressed down with my hand, fill it with water, put a brick on top to keep them down and cover for a few weeks. Using it is easy - fill a watering can with water and keep adding the liquid until it is the colour of weak tea. I've used it much stronger than that without any side effects I could see. How often? Depends on plant but none of the commercial feeds are recommended to be used more than once a week, so.. once a week it is.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Now here is another follow up query. Time to pot up baskets, the question is whether or not to put the slow release feeding granules in there as I would normally do or do I really trust to my new liquid compost and assume that I can dispense with my normal basket feeding regime? Oh er missus! Discuss!!!!!
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It appears on page 13 under the article 'How to make comfrey tea'.
One other advantage that I have found with it is that it makes liquid compost very quickly, in just a couple of weeks. I am nearly through my first batch of 8 litres or so of tea and have been feeding many of my plants with it, including Clematis, container roses and bush tomatoes. The second lot of tea comprises banana skin and nettles heads and is about a week old so I will hopefully get a good succession of liquid compost available for the whole season.
In a 10 litre bucket, how much Comfrey should I add? Half way, full, 3 good size plants etc.?
Once the tea is ready, what is the dilution ratio per 5 litres of water? Thimble, cup, 0.5ltrs
How often should it be used to feed the plants? Once a week, month, season?
Can you overfeed, and what happens if you do?
Are there any plants you should not use it on?
Phil
My composter advises 2kg of solids to 10 litre of water but think of it this way - if you are adding just comfrey leaves, 2kg is an awful lot of leaves, but if you add say a banana skin you'll soon get to your 2kg. So you can see from that example that applying weight measurements to this scenario just doesn't really work. So I would say just put in enough composting solids to have the 10 litre of water cover it.
When you use the finished liquid feed it's advised that you use 10 parts water to one part liquid compost but again I wouldn't have thought you need to be too precious about it, as long as the mixture isn't so strong that you poison the plants nor too weak that it becomes a futile exercise!
And frequency of feeding? As often as you'd normally feed your plants is probably the way to go.
I'm no expert, just applying common sense really, and others may be along to put in their penny's worth.
Time to pot up baskets, the question is whether or not to put the slow release feeding granules in there as I would normally do or do I really trust to my new liquid compost and assume that I can dispense with my normal basket feeding regime?
Oh er missus!
Discuss!!!!!