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Comfrey Press

Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
edited July 2020 in Plants
Morning all, has anyone successfully constructed a comfrey 'press' to extract the concentrated "liquor" rather than the smelly tea you get from submerging in water?

I saw the GW episode a couple of weeks ago where someone was showing how she made one and a quick Google search this morning brought up this using a length of pipe:
 

Has anyone had a go at making something similar?
East Yorkshire
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  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Not yet but I do have plans.  I have two old tall rectangular kitchen bins whose lids have long gone.  I'm planning to cut a hole in the bottom, stand them on bricks above a receptacle and fill them with comfrey foliage just as soon as my new patch of it produces enough and then place a breeze block on top to weight it all down.   

    I've done the old method with comfrey in buckets of water and it really is very unpleasant.   I might find another bin and see if it works with nettles too as they stink just as bad when done in water.   
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
    @Obelixx - I did read something while searching where someone had tried nettles and said it didn't work because they're too tough for the pressing action to squeeze anything from them!
    East Yorkshire
  • KeenOnGreenKeenOnGreen Posts: 1,831
    We use a plastic dustbin to make our soup.  It only smells when we take the lid off, which we only do when we are filtering the leaves out when the soup is ready, and that only takes about half an hour.

    Although I'm sure the above process does reduce the smell when making the soup, surely it will still stink when it is mixed with water and poured onto the garden?  Our allotment neighbours don't complain about the smell when we are making the soup (as there is almost none, due to the dustbin lid), but they do moan about it when we are actually watering it on the plants.
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,385
    edited July 2020
    Yes, I made one using a similar design and it worked well.  It is fixed to a fence post with an angled hinged wooden lid screwed on above it to keep the rain out.  However, production of the 'magic fluid' stopped abrubtly several years ago when I lifted the lid intending to pull out the bottle of water in order to refill with fresh leaves and I saw several little beaks looking up at me from a nest which had been built on top of the bottle!
    I gently closed the lid and quickly retreated but kept my eye on the area from a distance and after a few minutes saw a Great Tit fly in with a beakful of insects.  :) Since then I've been using an old plastic bin (about 50l) instead and the press (which has now been permanently redefined as a bird box) is regularly used by Great Tits and, in some years, Robins.  :)
    Before that happened, I remember it was always a bit of a chore to clear-out the compressed material at the bottom when it blocked the flow, so make sure the pipe and/or the end cap can easily be removed for cleaning when this happens (and it will!)  
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    In my experience, the nasty smell comes from the rotting leaves rather than the liquor.  If you strain it off after a few weeks and discard the pulp, the remaining liquid doesn't smell nearly so bad.


  • Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
    Well I've got some stuff now for making one, and plenty of comfrey for some leaves.

    I looked at the pipe method but it was just going to be too awkward and expensive to get the parts I needed. So I've gone for a dustbin over a bucket.

    The dustbin has holes drilled in the bottom, a metal garden riddle inside which is sat on some spacers so the holes don't get blocked and then the whole thing fits on top of a strong bucket.

    Then I'll put the leaves in and weigh them down with whatever rocks and bits I can find around the plot.

    Pop the lid on and see how it goes.
    East Yorkshire
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Sounds good.  Let us know how you get on.

    I'm planning to empty and strain the nettle tea I made and then use the bin for comfrey but using the compression method to avoid the pong.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    sounds cool to me
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    Many years ago we tried it using a large plastic bucket with a hole drilled in the base and a rubber bung ( the sort you use with demijohns when making wine.) The rubber bung had a hole drilled in it with a piece of narrow plastic pipe inserted to be flush on the inside of the the bucket and protruding underneath, the idea being the comfrey liquid would drain through the pipe into another bucket underneath. We cut a plywood circle  to fit  on top of the comfrey and put a brick on top to weigh it down.
    I think we got the instructions from an HDRA (now Garden Organic) publication.
    It didn't work.
    The comfrey leaves blocked the little pipe.
    Ah well......we tried!
  • Mr. Vine EyeMr. Vine Eye Posts: 2,394
    Woodgreen said:

    It didn't work.
    The comfrey leaves blocked the little pipe.
    Ah well......we tried!
    Hopefully that’s where the riddle will come in. From the videos I’ve watched they all have something in the bottom, like chicken wire mesh folded over itself to fit, to act as a filter and create a space above the drainage holes to stop them getting blocked.
    East Yorkshire
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