Growing Comfrey

Good morning!
I am interested in growing Comfrey for a variety of reasons, but one of them is to feed our livestock. We have chickens, goats, pigs, and rabbits at the moment. I have read much and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. I thought I would come to the forums to ask about this wonderful yet confusing crop. I don't know how to get my zone information in my profile so here it is. SE Texas Zone 9a or 9b

Thank you for hearing my plight!

Sheila

Sheila Nawrot wrote:Good morning!
I am interested in growing Comfrey for a variety of reasons, but one of them is to feed our livestock. We have chickens, goats, pigs, and rabbits at the moment. I have read much and there is a lot of conflicting information out there. I thought I would come to the forums to ask about this wonderful yet confusing crop. I don't know how to get my zone information in my profile so here it is. SE Texas Zone 9a or 9b

Thank you for hearing my plight!

Sheila

Lots of people here grow comfrey, myself included.  What questions do you have?

I grow it in 9b for fertilizer and the rabbits love any extras I have. It seems to be one of these plants that some people can grow easily and others have trouble with-- I know it took me about 4 tries before I got happy plants that lasted from year to year.

i am also all comfrey all day.. it was here when i got the place and roots everywhere.. it is practically a weed!

i was on another post a while back about comfrey - the people having challenges "seemed" to be in arid climates - it is wet here so you might want to keep it well watered.

can't speak to feeding animals but it makes fantastic fertilizer and salve - best of luck!

In central New Jersey I had no success growing comfrey. Here in SW MI I am also having trouble. In both locations, the soil has been almost all sand.

Jerusalem artichokes have also been quite disappointing in both locations.

As for using for livestock feed, try it with your animals ;) None of us can tell you how yours will like it.

hey peter - that is an interesting addition to the "puzzle" - soil here is pretty heavy on the clay side.. so much so i garden exclusively in raised beds (till plain is 1/2 rocks of all sizes)

but the comfrey will not only grow in my beds, if will also grow happily in the native soil - i have given some root bits away to neighbors - no issues propagating..

cheers all!

Do try it in several locations. Here in zone 7a we have a seasonal drought for two months. But we do get a little rain in that time.  I had one plant In a very well drained spot that would   die to the ground untill steady rainstorms came back. It never died, I moved it to a happier spot. I also have a spindly plant in full shade. If it comes back in the spring, I will be moving it. Both of these have lived several years in their bad homes. Here, Comfrey will do okay in 4 hours sun. But it does fantastic in 6 hours full sun, with lots of harvests. Any watering it gets is accidental, due to seedling establishment in its bed.

Edit: I have clay soil.

I live in Texas too, about halfway between Austin and College Station. I planted a few comfrey roots in my veggie garden last fall, and they are doing great. I did keep them watered through the summer, just because I was watering that bed anyway. So I can't speak for how they would have withstood the summer without water, especially their first year. Our winter temps last winter did not phase it in the least, nor did the high summer temps. It even flowered nicely sometime during the summer, which was nice for the pollinators. I haven't tried feeding it to my animals yet. I am growing it more as a companion plant and I will probably make fertilizer from it when I have more of it. I might dig around and see if I can divide it sometime this winter/ early spring, when I have time.

I got my starter roots from a seller on Etsy. It was a variety that doesn't make fertile seeds.

I grow comfrey in a planter to minimize spread.  One thing that I've learned is that it prefers shade.  When I put it out in the sun it suffers.

It's understandable why comfrey has a love-dislike relationship among permies. It's thought of as an invasive plant (or weed to some folks). But that depends on what you use it for. We mainly use it to feed geese and to improve our chicken's egg production. So to us, comfrey  is very valuable. And I can see it's equally valuable to so many other permies here too, yay!

With regards to its tending, I think you've got enough advice and I concur with them, especially regarding watering and the shade. I'd also like to add that comfrey don't like cold temperatures therefore be ready with the mulching and heat beds. And since you have pigs, make sure they don't have access to the comfrey because of their rooting habits. But I guess you already know that.

Finally I'd like to reiterate that comfreys are highly nutritious to your livestock, which is attributed to its very deep roots that can pick up on minerals like potassium and nitrogen. So don't be put off by the contradicting info.

Hi Sheila, I live in N. California zone 9b. I struggled to grow comfrey. Two amazing folks on permies gave me a lot of comfrey root pieces, and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't get a single one to grow. I planted them all over. In the ground, in raised beds, in sun, shade, you name I tried it. For two years. Total failure.
Being a stubborn sort I kept trying.  I finally got one to grow. I ordered a comfrey crown in late summer, early fall? I got it on Etsy from someone in my state.  It grew well and made it through the summer. It has spread and grown well. I planted it on the edge of an apricot tree, and planted a purple tree collar on the west side so it doesn't get baked by the afternoon sun.  When it was first planted I had to be very diligent about watering it. Now that it's established I water it like the rest of my garden. It's grown way bigger than it was, it doesn't grow like a have read it does. That may be my fault I baby it because it was so hard to get it to grow. I will probably cut it more this year knowing it has had a year to establish itself.
Since I realized comfrey is not going to grow like a weed in my area (all I have to do is not water it) I tried growing by seed. I cold stratified (kept it in the fridge for a couple of months) I planted 6 seeds. 2 germinated. They grew amazingly well inside. Although they grew slow, one survived a brutal summer. I planted the one that survived with a new apple tree. It got watered when the apple got watered, and that's it. No special care or daily watering in the summer. ( It also helped me remember to water the apple. When the comfrey leaves would start to wilt, I knew it needed water.).  The one that died was planted by a new peach tree, but not by my garden, so it didn't get as much water.  I definitely plan to grow more from seed this year. I would love to have comfrey grow around every tree. My chickens would love that too.
Sorry it's such a long post. I hope it helps. Good luck