Eliza Lord

Ooh... if you DO end up planting comfrey from seed, you may want to try to contain it somehow. All the permies I know who planted it from seed consider it a type 1 error because it's such a bully once it gets where it wants to go. With the deep tap root that regenerates from any sized cutting, you have to work extraordinarily hard to remove it from an unwanted spot.

I have one friend who loves it, because she is using it to feed livestock. She also feeds her livestock kudzu. She uses a cattle panel enclosure about 8' x 8' so the sheep and goats can only get their heads in about 2' on each side and can't kill the plants in the center. The cattle panel enclosure is positioned in the center of the pasture so any escapees get eaten to death. Anyway, maybe stick with the poke until you can get some sterile comfrey.

Maybe you could get a sterile Russian comfrey root for just the price of postage if you sent an SASE or traded a plant with someone on permies or Gardenweb's plant exchange (most people with comfrey have plenty to share): http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/exchind/

Hi Dan! I've been doing the same thing ever since I wrote the original post. I don't think it is as good a nutrient accumulator as comfrey, but it's been a fantastic carbon chop & drop (and presumably has some nutrient accumulating capacity, though I've never been able to exactly nail it down). The stalks are perfect for compost because their hollow nature provides air pockets that keeps circulation and microbial activity up. Plus as you mention, it is incredibly easy to break the big stalks off. I popped stalks off of a bunch of it today and stuffed it under my gooseberry and some other plants -- if I hide it under the fruit shrubs in the front yard, the neighbors don't even know I am mulching with weeds!

We have a wonderful local permaculture guild (the SC Upstate Permaculture Society: https://www.facebook.com/groups/445484185526915/). Some of our members are looking to do the free Regenerative Leadership Institute 72 hour permaculture design course by meeting locally for group learning.

I've heard of other people meeting and doing the hands-on parts at each other's property while discussing the lessons. Can anyone weigh in on their experiences with this or point me to some sort of template? How often should we meet? What would our group facilitator need to do to moderate each gathering's lesson? Is there a minimum or maximum number of students recommended for something like this? I suppose if we were too big we could break into smaller groups.

I'd love to hear any experiences with this (especially type 1 errors we can avoid).

Hello to all the SC mountain folk on this forum. We want to invite you to join (for free) the SC Upstate Permaculture Society. Our first planning meeting is on May 5th (International Permaculture Day). We're only a week old and already have 120 members -- so exciting!

If you'd like to join, here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/groups/445484185526915/

Making sure all the permies in SC know about the new SC Upstate Permaculture Society. It's free to join and our first planning meeting is on May 5th (International Permaculture Day). We're only a week old and already have 120 members!

Here's the link if you'd like to join, and please tell anyone you know who may be interested: http://www.facebook.com/groups/445484185526915/

Hope to see you soon!

I wanted to make sure everyone in the upper South Carolina area knew about the new SC Upstate Permaculture Society. We're psyched because we already have 120 members and are only one week old! Nice to know so many people are into this.

Here's the link to join if you're interested: http://www.facebook.com/groups/445484185526915/

Our first planning meeting, open to all members, is on May 5th (International Permaculture Day), 5:00pm at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery.

So chop and drop green mulch seems to keep them happy. Or kitchen scraps.

This will be my first year of (knowingly -- since I have always done this to weeds and prunings and just thought I was being lazy) using chop and drop. I hope you're right! I'll try burying kitchen scraps right in the walkways between the beds to see if that distracts them, too.

I was delighted to see this post in the forum and sorry that no one seems to have figured it out for certain. I've had this problem for a very long time and assumed it was a lack of balance but I haven't figured out what it is, yet.

I've tried diatomaceous earth but it doesn't seem to phase them. Likewise, letting the soil dry out between waterings barely slows them down. If I were to let the soil dry out enough to truly get rid of them, I'd also be rid of all my plants. (I've actually let plants die to see if it helped -- as soon as I started watering again, they were back).

I've noticed this seems to be a local problem -- I'm in the Greenville, SC area and I've talked to many gardeners here who have a difficulty with pillbugs. The community garden I help with is also dealing with them, as well as some other major gardens. I've wondered if there is something in our specific soil or climate that causes their populations to spiral out of control. Alternately, I've wondered if there are localized diet preferences for them? When I talk to people in nearby towns or even neighboring states about it, they look at me like I'm nuts. (Incidentally, I do know for certain it is pillbugs doing the damage).

I hugelkultur and compost, so I'm not sure why they don't have enough rotting organic matter and need to supplement their diet with other things. They also seem to favor some types of seedlings over others (and all root vegetables, especially potatoes). They don't tend to bother mature plants unless they can reach the fruit. I've found them pretty high up on tomato plants eating the fruit (along with earwigs, which are similar in their diets/behavior to pillbugs for me). I wonder if the earwigs are negatively affected by the same things the pillbugs are.

My chickens don't like pillbugs. They'll eat them at first but seem to tire of the constant, excessive supply. Can't really blame them.

Wish I had the "plague" that maikeru sumi-e mentioned -- sounds like it could be a cordyceps mushroom?

I think that next I'll try even more hugelkultur and adding a pond (which I wanted for water catchment reasons, anyway) to attract more frogs and toads.

If someone figures it out, please share!

I think I'm going to go with Colocasia 'Elepaio' which is the first one on that list. Since the catalog description said it was an old Hawaiian variety I looked it up and found it is edible and supposed to make good poi. One person says it was historically only grown by the Hawaiian royal family.

I'd still love to know if anyone has experience with eating other ornamental C. esculenta. Also, anyone know if red/purple varieties are commonly eaten?

I understand that Hawaiians bred hundreds of varieties of edible taro before western crops took over as mainstays on their farms. Does anyone know if the Colocasia esculenta varieties sold in the ornamental trade are of the same food value? Do some taste better than others?

As an example, here is an extensive list of Colocasia esculenta cultivars that grow in my hardiness zone. I'd like to pick one that won't overly bully its neighbors and figured a purple or variegated variety would have enough reduced vigor to make that possible:

http://www.plantdelights.com/searchprods.asp

If anyone has suggestions on how to pick a variety or opinions on their overall edibility I'd greatly appreciate it.