It's very useful as a free feed - whether nettle or comfrey. Bundle of foliage in a bucket of water, drain and keep, then dilute at 1:10. Easy. Yours are further on than mine @Sheps, so you'll have plenty of material there People say the comfrey smells while decomposing, but I haven't found that. I have a poor sense of smell though!
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
You're right @Sheps - hopeless mare ! Good morning to you too I was thinking about your lettuce the other day when I picked some for my sandwiches, as it's now grown enough for some cut and come again treatment
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Comfrey does absolutely stink if you add it to water where it ferments but if you press it and it has access to oxygen it doesn't smell at all.
If you want to keep the process going you can use the Korean farming approach where you add a handful of leaf mould to the water and constantly add new comfrey after the other ones have broken down. With this process you need to keep changing the dilution as it gets much stronger and move from 1:10 to about 1:100 after a year. It makes it less of a faff and far easier.
Anecdotally I would say it helps yes, it certainly does no harm to the plant's or soil. It's not really much work at all and as it's organic I don't mind trying. We put comfrey on the compost as well and a few people use it as a mulch (we don't as it is a slug attractant).
I genuinely couldn't smell anything from it, even when I was quite near @thevictorian
I found it very useful though, and it saves buying more food than necessary. Really easy to do as well, and a great product along with nettles. Chuck a load of foliage in a bucket of water and the drain into bottles for diluting. The foliage into the compost bin.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The roots go deep, and there is a lot of leaf to each sq. metre of ground, so the yield is good. But apart from that ...
I would guess that all leaves have approximately the same ratio of plantfood chemiclas. Some will have more food reserves (starch and sugars) and some will have more structural chemicals (cellulose and lignin). Holly is obviously tougher and stiffer than comfrey. Tea tips are more delicate than mature leaves. (My mother used to put used tea-leaves on a hydrangea by the fronr door. Remember loose tea and tea-pots?)
All leaves will ferment. Comfrey may have a lot of sulphur, hence the smell. Leaves will differ in microchemicals, especially scent & taste chemicals, and poisons to reduce predation. But this should have little relevance to plantfood value.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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People say the comfrey smells while decomposing, but I haven't found that. I have a poor sense of smell though!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I was thinking about your lettuce the other day when I picked some for my sandwiches, as it's now grown enough for some cut and come again treatment
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you want to keep the process going you can use the Korean farming approach where you add a handful of leaf mould to the water and constantly add new comfrey after the other ones have broken down. With this process you need to keep changing the dilution as it gets much stronger and move from 1:10 to about 1:100 after a year. It makes it less of a faff and far easier.
Any feedback on results with and without?
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I found it very useful though, and it saves buying more food than necessary. Really easy to do as well, and a great product along with nettles. Chuck a load of foliage in a bucket of water and the drain into bottles for diluting. The foliage into the compost bin.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
The roots go deep, and there is a lot of leaf to each sq. metre of ground, so the yield is good. But apart from that ...
I would guess that all leaves have approximately the same ratio of plantfood chemiclas. Some will have more food reserves (starch and sugars) and some will have more structural chemicals (cellulose and lignin). Holly is obviously tougher and stiffer than comfrey. Tea tips are more delicate than mature leaves. (My mother used to put used tea-leaves on a hydrangea by the fronr door. Remember loose tea and tea-pots?)
All leaves will ferment. Comfrey may have a lot of sulphur, hence the smell. Leaves will differ in microchemicals, especially scent & taste chemicals, and poisons to reduce predation. But this should have little relevance to plantfood value.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."