Comfrey (NOT Bocking 14) - how to ensure it does not self seed or spread?
January Man
Posts: 212
Hi all
It's my first year of proper gardening and I am dead keen to use comfrey in all of it's wonderful uses: liquid tea, mulch, dug in, leaf mould, compost activator...
Someone very very kindly provided me some crown and root offsets which I have now started to grow new plants from. This is the Bocking 14 variety, and so I shouldn't have a problem with it taking over the garden. The trouble is that it is not likely to provide much for use this year, and I want to use it... NOW!
So I put an advert yesterday for harvested leaves and plants and many kind folk have been in touch offering me some from their gardens. I don't think much of this is likely to be Bocking 14... So my question is:
Is it possible to use this in the garden (as liquid tea, mulch etc) and not have it spread or self seed? And if so, how can I go about that? If I use JUST leaves, will I be safe? Any other means to ensure I am safe from a comfrey invasion?!
Many thanks
Max
Posts
Stew it in water for a month or so. Dilute the resultant witches brew to the colour of weak tea before use. The sludge at the bottom of the bucket can go on the compost heap at the end of the year.
Thanks fidgetbones. That's what I was planning to do with it. Excuse the newbie question, but will doing that ensure that there is no chance of it growing where it is used?
Great. I think the best strategy will be just to use the leaves in what ever I do then. I've heard that container growing is not so great with Comfrey as it's big advantage is a very deep tap root which "mines" nutrients from the parts other plants cannot reach...
Newbie question alert - where do the seeds form the plant come from? The flower?
Thanks for the help
Last edited: 29 May 2017 22:55:16
This will sound rude, but is not meant to be.
It sounds strange that you know about Bocking 14 Comfrey, but not that seeds are produced from the flowers.
Do you think that some more basic knowledge would be useful, before worrying about Comfrey tea ?
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I think you've got half a point punkdoc
But the way I see it is that I need to know what I need to know for the purposes I have in mind, not for a horticultural exam! So I know that:
- Comfrey makes a great balanced fertiliser and has many other uses
- It spreads like wildfire
- But Bocking 14 is a variety which doesn't because the seed is sterile
Up until now that's all I've needed to know and so I have not looked into it further. And I believe to be right on all three counts. But seeing as I will be using comfrey which is not Bocking 14 while my plants establish themselves - and seeing as this wild comfrey can take over the garden and be impossible to eradicate - I thought it would be a good idea to ensure I don't make a blunder when using it. Which is what brought me here with my additional question
Beyond that, I'm not sure what other basic knowledge I need....
Right well one other thing you need to know is that the smell of comfrey 'tea' is like nothing on earth and not in a good way, so brew it outside and no where close to places you like to sit out.
Seeds come from flowers, yes. In some plants you'll see them form directly (coriander, for example, it sets seed very fast and quite large so you can watch it happening. Then collect all the seeds and use them in curry, feeling much more informed
) In some there is an intermediate stage of fruit, which also comes from the flowers and which contains the seeds.
If you want to stop a plant seeding, cut the flowers off when they form and it won't have time. Unless it's bittercress which seems to be able to flower and set seed within approximately 20 seconds (I may be exaggerating a little). If you keep the flowers out of the tea and the compost heap, you won't have a problem with it spreading by seed. If you intend to plant any of the wild stuff as a temporary measure, you'll need to be sure you get the roots out (or plant it in a pot as a short term compromise).
Bocking 14 comfrey does spread, albeit slowly. When you bought it, they presumably sent you sections of root? And the roots do gradually spread out, so the clump will expand over the years. You are correct in that it's principal advantage as a food plant comes from its mineral accumulation property, because it has a deep root, so it contains a lot of potassium (good for fruit and flowers). Nettles make a good feed for leafy plants (made in exactly the same way and with the same caveat about flowers and seeds) because they contain a lot of nitrogen compounds. I think old gardeners would generally have a pot of each brewing, using the nettle tea for younger plants and switching to comfrey when they begin to flower.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thanks raisingirl, that’s all very helpful.
I made nettle tea quite a few years back, and remember the smell of that very well. It’s the type of thing you never forget! I was presuming the comfrey tea would have a similar smell… But is it worse?
I won’t be planting any wild comfrey, just using it to make tea whilst mine establishes.
Someone actually gave me the Bocking 14 offcuts. There was a mixture of JUST root sections, and then roots section with a few leaves growing form it. I was going to plant it with a 2 1/2 to 3 foot spacing so that it has room to spread from the roots.
Funnily enough that is my plan exactly – to get a batch of nettle tea on the go at the same time. In fact, I was thinking of doing separate batches of nettle, comfrey, and seaweed teas, and then perhaps one bucket load of all three mixed together.
Cheers
Yes, comfrey smells worse
Your plan sounds fine to me
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Yes it's great stuff, as is nettle, just have a nose-peg handy
My comfrey tea isn't too pongy. I save the net bags in which fruit is sold, stuff them with comfrey, put them in large screw top jars and fill with rain water. After a few weeks in the fridge, I remove the bags of gunge, which pong, and keep the liquid in the fridge.
This way, it's a lot pleasanter to use.