multiplying your comfrey

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by lovingmygarden, Aug 5, 2009.

  1. lovingmygarden

    lovingmygarden Junior Member

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    My comfrey started off with just four plants and I have divided them now into 19 over one year. I am rather thrilled with this but I still need alot more plants so I ordered another 25 from Green harvest. When they arrived (very fast delivery and well packaged I might add), they were 25 one inch root cuttings.....oh my goodness how simple was this??? I planted them with a little sceptisism and watered them in. Well today I discovered they are shooting through the soil....yeehaa!!!. So if you have a comfrey plant maybe you could try to multiply them this way, you will get alot more plants than if you just divide them and it seems to work well.
    I guess alot of you already knew this method, but I am very glad to have discovered it and hope that maybe someone will read this and get some use from it too.
    Cheers :drinkers: lovingmygarden
     
  2. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    That's very cool, thanks :)

    I reckon you could put a comfrey plant through a shredder and then plant that over an area and grow many comfrey plants ;-)
     
  3. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    Yeah, I've found that the quickest way to spread comfrey is to try and get rid of it!
     
  4. buff orpington

    buff orpington Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    there is a tree comfrey (symphytum uplandicum) that can grow to 1m tall, doubleday sliced it, diggers in victoria have it.
     
  5. lovingmygarden

    lovingmygarden Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    Wow. Tree comfrey, that sounds good. I have never heard of it before, does it get big and bushy ie: lots more leaves to use for composting etc?
    Thanks buff I might look into getting some of that too.
    Cheers :drinkers:
     
  6. buff orpington

    buff orpington Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    yes it gets big and bushy and more leaves, i also have a variegated one in an herb spiral i designed at the varsity lakes community garden on the gold coast in oz, it has been nominated for this years gold coast urban design award, it's only been open a month! go to duckbloke@hotmail on facebook to see the fotos.
     
  7. Louigi55

    Louigi55 Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    I live inland(South Burnet) where there is heaps of frost in winter.
    I want to plant a few acres of permanent, irrigated cow feed.
    Some to be harvested for chooks and compost as well.
    How do you think Comfery will go in this climate?
    I had one plant doing fairly well before winter but I am having trouble finding it now.
    I am going to liberally water the area to see if it comes out of dormancy.
    What other plants can I put with it as edible companions in the paddock?
    How do Plantain, Chickory, Amaranth go with frost and how are they as feed?
    I will be sowing some lucerne in there as well.
    Are there any winter active species that could give more year round feed in that situation?
    Any grasses?
    I obviously want a diverse stand of nutritious feed and few problems so I need to know about the weed and any other problems/suggestions/information in this situation.
    If anybody is relatively nearby with excess planting stock I will be interested when I am close to establishment.
    Thanks.
     
  8. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    Comfrey does die back in the winter and come away again in the spring. I have no idea where South Burnet is. Is that in Australia?
     
  9. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    tree comfrey? The comfrey here always gets very tall (Brisbane) maybe 3 meters.
     
  10. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    Hey Hedwig - I've never seen tree comfrey. It must be a different type to the one I've got. I know somebody else was talking about tree comfrey also, but are you sure it is in fact comfrey. The closest thing that I've seen that looks like comfrey and is a tree is wild tobacco, which I imagine is a weed. On that subject - without wanting to get off topic, has anybody ever grafted tomato to wild tobacco - I've heard that it can result in a great tomato plant/tree. :)
     
  11. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    The comfrey being called tree comfrey here, symphytum x uplandicum, is a variety developped by the Henry Doubleday Research Association. It's sterile (so you have to use roots to propogate). Where I live it grows bushy and has tall flowering stems (up to a metre or more). I wouldn't call it tree-like and I've never heard it called that before, but common names are often local.

    https://www.plant-identification.co.uk/s ... ndicum.htm
     
  12. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    That's the one I grow. SUrely that is not what people are calling tree comfrey??
     
  13. alfamick

    alfamick Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    Hey Veggie Boy,
    You were asking about grafting tomato onto tobacco - I haven't done it myself, but I've seen it years ago down at Tropical Fruit World. They had a great experimental garden - the thing was a smallish tree with tomatoes.
     
  14. Veggie Boy

    Veggie Boy Junior Member

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    Re: multiplying your comfrey

    Cool - thanks Alfamick. I've been meaning to try it for years.
     

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