ive got a couple of large clumps of comfrey on allotment. Haven't yet this year cut it so now covered in flowers. Will it be ok to chop it & add to compost heap & as a mulch or will it seed everywhere?
I have this in the garden and like to let of flower as I and the bees enjoy them but it will self seed and spread by roots too so cut once the flowers are over but before they have set seed.
I bung loads on the compost heap but also us leaves make a tea for tomatoes. A trial between comfrey tea and commercial tomato food on Beechgrove last year showed comfrey tea is best.
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)."
that's what I do! I've already cut it to the ground twice this year and it's ready to do again now. The first lot I soaked in a bucket of water until it stank like pig manure - filtered through a pair of tights and bottled the resultant liquid manure - it's brilliant for tomatoes. The rest has gone into the compost bins....
Strebordale, yes - dig up as much root as possible (you won't get it all as it can go down a metre or more), plant in the new hole and it will grow again in spring. It is virtually indestructible. It will almost certainly appear again in the old position from pieces of root you missed but if you keep pulling it up it as soon as it appears, it will eventually give up.
I've moved comfrey this way several times in my garden.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Yes Gertie, comfrey has huge roots which need to go down very deep - not one for a pot I'm afraid. As an aside, it is comfrey's ability to root deeply which enables it to draw up trace elements from deep in the soil and helps make it such a valuable plant for making liquid feed. Some of those trace elements are often depleted in topsoil as they have been used up by shallow-rooted plants.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Gertie - since it has enormous roots (see above) there's probably jist not enough room for it in the pot. Anything in a pot has this problem I suppose. What you have there, my friend, is a bonsai comfrey!
Aliesh - it'll be a numbered strain developed at Bocking in Essex. From Wikipaedia:
Bocking 14 is sterile, and therefore will not set seed (one of its advantages over other cultivars as it will not spread out of control), thus is propagated from root cuttings.
(You can ignore what it says about spreading out of control!)
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I have this in the garden and like to let of flower as I and the bees enjoy them but it will self seed and spread by roots too so cut once the flowers are over but before they have set seed.
I bung loads on the compost heap but also us leaves make a tea for tomatoes. A trial between comfrey tea and commercial tomato food on Beechgrove last year showed comfrey tea is best.
that's what I do! I've already cut it to the ground twice this year and it's ready to do again now. The first lot I soaked in a bucket of water until it stank like pig manure - filtered through a pair of tights and bottled the resultant liquid manure - it's brilliant for tomatoes. The rest has gone into the compost bins....
Cut it down at once. Do not let it seed, you'll be inundated with it. Stewed in a bucket of water to make a tomato feed is the best use imho.
My comfrey doesn't grow from seed its called blocking 14 or something like that
it will only grows from root cuttings, so i cut it any time and add it to my compost heap.
I want to move my comfrey plant to a different place in the border. Is it safe to do it now?
Strebordale, yes - dig up as much root as possible (you won't get it all as it can go down a metre or more), plant in the new hole and it will grow again in spring. It is virtually indestructible. It will almost certainly appear again in the old position from pieces of root you missed but if you keep pulling it up it as soon as it appears, it will eventually give up.
I've moved comfrey this way several times in my garden.
Yes Gertie, comfrey has huge roots which need to go down very deep - not one for a pot I'm afraid. As an aside, it is comfrey's ability to root deeply which enables it to draw up trace elements from deep in the soil and helps make it such a valuable plant for making liquid feed. Some of those trace elements are often depleted in topsoil as they have been used up by shallow-rooted plants.
Gertie - since it has enormous roots (see above) there's probably jist not enough room for it in the pot. Anything in a pot has this problem I suppose. What you have there, my friend, is a bonsai comfrey!
Aliesh - it'll be a numbered strain developed at Bocking in Essex. From Wikipaedia:
Bocking 14 is sterile, and therefore will not set seed (one of its advantages over other cultivars as it will not spread out of control), thus is propagated from root cuttings.
(You can ignore what it says about spreading out of control!)