Looking for Comfrey

Discussion in 'Buy, sell, trade, give away & exchange' started by Muddy Waters, Sep 18, 2015.

  1. Muddy Waters

    Muddy Waters New Member

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    Looking to grow some to use in composting toilet.
     
  2. 4G's

    4G's Junior Member

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    Hi, have you had any success? If not, pm me your address and I can send you a small piece to start. Highly recommended to use in a compost toilet. It really helps.
     
  3. permaship

    permaship Junior Member

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    There's a plethora of info out there about comfrey but not much detail regarding establishing and managing a comfrey patch so I thought I would write an article to share my experience on this and how we grow comfrey as part of our fertility strategy in the market garden.

    When writing this article I could not resist to include some of the story of this incredible plant and of the people that have been enchanted by its prowess. So we'll start with a condensed story of comfrey and why I think you should certainly believe the hype.

    To view the full post with photos and tables please see
    https://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.bg ... -hype.html

    Part 1. Introduction to Comfrey

    A member of the Borage family, Comfrey - Symphytum spp. is native to Europe and Asia and there are 40 recorded species of Comfrey throughout that region. The plant most commonly referred to and used in gardens is Russian Comfrey - Symphytum x uplandicum, a naturally occurring hybrid of two wild species: Common Comfrey - Symphytum officinale and Prickly Comfrey - Symphytum asperum.
    A few centuries back the hybrid Symphytum x uplandicum came to the attention of an original ecotrepreneur Henry Doubleday (1810 – 1902) and he widely promoted the plant as a food and forage crop. Years later, and after two world wars, Lawrence D Hills (1911–1991) would continue Henry Doubleday's Comfrey crusade.

    In the 1950's Hills developed a Comfrey research program in the village of Bocking, near Braintree in the UK. The original trial site is on the plot of land now occupied by the Doubleday Gardens housing development. Lawrence Hills lived at 20 Convent Lane just around the corner of the trail site.



    The area highlighted in red was the site of the Bocking 14 trails. Today, it is home to the housing development named Doubleday Gardens in memory of Henry Doubleday. The red dot is where Hills lived.

    At this site Hills trialed at least 21 Comfrey "strains" each one named after the village Bocking.

    Strain fourteen was identified as being the most nutrient rich non-seeding strain and 'Bocking 14' began its journey into gardens far and wide across the world.

    As a consequence of his research into comfrey and organic gardening, Hills founded HDRA (Henry Doubleday Research Organisiation). HDRA moved from Bocking to Wolston, near Coventry at the present site of Ryton Organic gardens in 1985, where today you can find ten acres of fully landscaped organic gardens. HDRA is now known as Garden Organic and is one of the worlds leading organic gardening organisations.

    It's amusing to think how the chance offspring of two wild plants can have so much influence!

    Regarding the other 20 strains, it appears all but 'Bocking 4' are lost. I'll be visiting Ryton Gardens in the summer to see if I can track down "the lost Bocking strains". If anyone has any other idea where I might find them please get in touch!



    So let's take a look at why these guys found this plant so enthralling.


    Comfrey Uses

    Medicinal Use - Comfrey has been cultivated, at least, since 400 BC as a healing herb. The Greeks and Romans commonly used Comfrey to stop heavy bleeding, treat bronchial problems and heal wounds and broken bones. Poultices were made for external wounds and tea was consumed for internal ailments. Comfrey has been reported to promote healthy skin with its mucilage content that moisturizes and soothes and promotes cell proliferation. This plant is my first port of call if ever I need to dress a wound. Simply take a few leaves brush them together to remove the hairs and wrap them around the wound and apply light pressure. It's incredibly effective at stopping the bleeding, reducing the pain and healing the wound.

    Biomass - Comfrey produces large amounts of foliage from late May until hard frosts in October or November. The plant is excellent for producing mulch and can be cut from 2 - 5 times per year depending on how well the plants are watered and fed. The plant grows rapidly after each harvest.
    In our gardens we have Comfrey 'Bocking 14' located next to each fruit tree in order to have a renewable source of mulch just where we need it. We also grow in patches as part of our fertility strategy in the market garden and have patches in the wildflower meadows.(details below)
    We recently supplied 1000 'Bocking 14' cuttings to Oxygenisis a business in Germany who are experimenting with using this plant for carbon capture.

    Mineral Dam – The Comfrey has deep roots of up to 2 m that utilize nutrients deep in the subsoil that would otherwise wash away with the underground soil water or remain inaccessible to other plants. The nutrients - once taken up from the roots - are relocated throughout the plant as and where needed with some of them ending up in the Comfrey leaf mass. When cutting the leaf mass and applying to the soil surface the mined nutrients are returned and again made accessible to shallower rooted crop plants.

    Biodiversity - The bell shaped flowers provide nectar and pollen to many species of bees and other insects from late May until the first frosts in late Autumn. Lacewings are said to lay eggs on Comfrey and Spiders overwinter on the plant. Parasitoid Wasps and Spiders will hunt on and around Comfrey.



    Xylocopa violacea - Violet carpenter bee feeding from our comfrey patch

    Pest and Disease Prevention and Control - Research indicates that a comfrey solution can be used to prevent powdery mildew. Pest predators such as spiders, lacewings and parasatoid wasps associate with this plant. Its best to leave some plants alone in order to sustain pest predator relationships.

    Ground Cover – Some species can quickly spread to form a thick ground cover and work particularly well for ground cover on the sunny side under shrubs and trees. Symphytum tuberosum - Tuberous Comfrey seems to be the best species for this.
    Fertilizer - Comfrey leaves contain a great balance of major plant nutrients (N,P,K) and can be feed to plants as powder, direct mulch or by steeping chopped Comfrey leaves in water for several weeks to produce a thick, dark liquid that can be diluted with water and applied to plant roots.
    More on this below.
    Nutritional Value of Comfrey - You can see from the below table that wilted Comfrey contains significantly higher quantities of Potash compared to other organic fertilisers. Its well recorded that Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium (K) a major plant nutrient that is required by plants in large amounts for proper growth and reproduction.



    Taken from Lawrence D.Hills - The Comfrey Report

    Animal Fodder - Comfrey has a long history for use as an animal feed. Lawrence D Hills dedicated books to this topic*. The leaves are best received by animals wilted. Fresh leaves can be eaten by pigs, sheep, and poultry but cattle, rabbits and horses will only consume wilted leaves.

    Human Consumption - Symphytum officianale and Symphytum x uplandicum are both reported to be used for salad and potherb and are best when cooked. Personally I'm not keen on the texture but will have the occasional nibble from the garden using the new growth to mix in a spring green salad.

    Caution - Although Comfrey has been used as a food crop, in the past 20 years scientific studies reported that Comfrey may be carcinogenic, since it appeared to cause liver damage and cancerous tumors in rats. These reports have temporarily restricted development of Comfrey as a food crop. In light of this, the regular consumption of Comfrey is not advisable.


    'Bocking 14' root system from our market garden. Grown from a crown division. The roots extended at least 50 cm down within the first 5 months of growth


    Part 2. How to set up and manage a Comfrey patch

    I can only post a certain amount of characters here, To see the rest of the post visit
    https://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.bg/2016/02/comfrey-believe-hype.html
     

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