Steve Garza

Marceau Oppermann wrote:Is anyone here growing oil crops ?
I can imagine walnuts being one of the easiest and most prolific but has anyone tried growing rapeseed, flax, sunflower, camelina, hemp etc ?
Does anyone here make his own oil (for food or making soap...) ?

There are some mid range oil presses available that are built in China or India.  Price is around the $1k range, or at least it used to be.  They produce 10's of gallons per day.  I was thinking about growing Camelina at one time for biodiesel, but had a change of plans.

Daniel Larusso wrote:Oh smart idea there ^^ I might try.

Yeah I had read about planting dandelions whose roots are strong and break the hard clay soil, is this the same for comfreys? I am not sure if comfreys would grow well in Spain, we have 40ºC (104ºF) in summer and 0ºC (32ºF) in winter.

Daniel, I know this reply is a bit late...but if you haven't tried it yet, plant your comfrey in the shade.  I live in Texas and we have similar temperatures.  I tried many times to grow comfrey in the full sun but it failed every time.  Then I decided to grow it in the shade and it thrived.  I keep a supply of comfrey growing on the north side of my home, in full shade.  It loves it there.

Cory Samuelson wrote:I'm curious to where you got the True Comfrey seeds and what's the difference between them and the Bocking. I'm thinking of ordering from Coe's as well. The prices seem quite reasonable considering I just bought a single plant in a 4" pot from Redenta's for $6.

I bought the True Comfrey seeds from www.outsidepride.com They were $4.99 for 100 seeds. Maybe somebody can correct me if I'm wrong here, but as far as I understand, the Bocking Comfreys #1 thru #21 are all hybrids that do not produce viable seed. True Comfrey aka Symphytum officinale is the one you want if you want to collect the seeds for re-planting or if it will be used for medicinal purposes.

I know this is sort of a late reply....but if you haven't read the book: "Comfrey, Fodder, Food & Remedy" by Lawrence D. Hills, do so now...because in the book, he covers all of the different varieties of Comfrey from Bocking 1 to 21 and how they all came to be. Good book.

Mignon Dietrich wrote:Sam McCoy (and anyone else living in the area), how well does comfrey tolerate our extreme heat and winter? Where is the best placement for it (North, South, East, West of the house)? What time is best to plant, fall or spring? Planning on getting the Bocking 4 variety

I live in north Texas and am also growing Bocking 4 Comfrey from Coe's Comfrey. I planted 2 year old plants about 3 weeks ago and so far it is growing great. I also have some 3-4 year old plants on order. I will be planting those next to my chicken coop so I can take advantage of the free manure. I also planted some True Comfrey from seed in a pot and it germinated better than I expected. About 8 out of 10 seeds came up. I don't know where I will be planting those yet as they will produce seed and spread on their own.

Hi guys, Just an FYI on the Hancock Seed company's Sunn Hemp seed....I asked them if they are selling the Tropic Sun cultivar. They replied that what they are selling is VNS (Variety Not Specified).

They said what they are selling is being used for biofuels and it may be Crotalaria juncea or Crotalaria spectabilis.

Not sure how to positively tell the difference by the seeds, but the USDA website shows a difference in seed color for the two. Spectabilis being much darker in color.

I'm sure Molokai Seed Company can shed more light on that....