Bocking 4 - Does it Exist in Australia?

Comfrey does not suffer from many diseases or pests.

In fact, if you listen to some people it does not have any.

Possibly, the primary disease it faces is Rust.

Symphtyum Officinale suffers greatly from rust, to a point where it is probably not commercially viable to grow it except perhaps in a small garden setting.

Bocking 14 however, is very resistant to Rust, thankfully.

In terms of pests though, the ones I have come across in my region are only occasionally briefly mentioned in literature.

I have only come across a couple which I find extremely annoying because of the damage they cause.

I must admit I do enjoy the sight of rapidly growing comfrey, but these pests activities can turn a kind hearted fellow into a cold blooded killer !

 

A spring update.

As anticipated, virtually all leaves by the last day of winter have died.

No visible new growth.

 

Two days into spring and the Comfrey is already shooting.

New growth is now visible.

This particular plant was one of my three best that grew to be 4 feet wide X 2.5 feet high in its first year.

I will interested to see how well it grows in its second year, given of course, a better established root system.

Comfrey generally peaks in terms of yield in its third or even 4th year.

This is a plant I will be breeding from.

I thought about how to best achieve this without upsetting the progress of the plant.

It is generally considered IDEALLY, for the sake of a growing plant to grow with minimal disruption to do this in at least the third year, when the root system has matured.

What I'm talking about is using a shovel and basically cutting the plant in half and retrieving half the rooting system.

Of course it can be done earlier. I know Comfrey is tough and it would survive, although growth would be impeded for some time.

I have no intention of waiting that long, but dont want to in any way slow down the growing process.

Thankfully, my needs are simple. I might just breed a couple of plants, from which I may sell root cuttings.

I have already selected a good heavy duty root from this plant and when the weather has warmed sufficiently and leaf growth has developed, I will extract it from the plant.

For a plant with such a huge root system, any impact on it will be negligible.

 

A close up of the shooting Comfrey.

 

The reason they give is that there are a variety of quarantine regulations to meet each country, so they usually just deliver.
Casesam
Samsung Galaxy S6 cover

 

Mulching is something I would like to have done from day 1 for the Comfrey, but did not.

And the reason I did not do it is was because of the bird life in my region.

The moment they see mulch in my region, the birds start playing in it.

Mulch attracts biota - living organisms, e.g small bugs etc which help to break down organic matter

It is this biota which the birds scratch around for in the mulch.

At the time of planting the comfrey, I was still figuring out how to put down mulch without having birds throwing it everywhere. In one of my garden beds they attacked the bed 3 times in one day. Very messy and very frustrating.

I came up with the idea of a wire netting a bit too late, because the comfrey had already shot off and I was short on mulch material at the time. So I thought I would leave it till the comfrey died, because I had no intention of cutting the comfrey back in the first year.

When the comfrey plants became dormant it gave me the opportunity to lift the wire mesh and add some mulch

Why mulch?

The effect of high sodium levels on soil physical properties is that soil may not maintain its structure when wet but disperse into fine individual particles which remain dispersed and set hard and crusty as they dry out.

It can be difficult to water properly without manually breaking the surface crust first.

The hard surface crust prevents the downward movement of water and the soil can have poor water penetration.

I found this to be of particular concern in summer in hot weather.

There will be no pores through the soil profile either, so in addition to no water infiltration, there can be no air penetration either.

One of the simplest and best means of coping with soil salinity is to reduce evaporation by mulching, particularly with an organic material with high insulation properties.

Mulching reduces water loss and so lessens salt stress on plants. Mulching lowers the need for extra water to leach out the free sodium in the soil. Of course if your mulch mix contains organics, this will allow an open soil mix and so easy penetration of applied water.

Mulch needs to be kept reasonably moist. It should not be allowed to dry out too much because you risk the soil beneath becoming too dry, defeating the purpose of the mulch.

Mulch can decrease water loss by up to 50-80% so less watering is therefore required in any case.

Mulch also keeps down weeds and moistness of the soil helps to keep it fertile and alive through the slow decomposition of the mulch material.