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Bocking 14 comfrey

 
Martha In the Garden
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posted 10 months ago
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Hey, I chopped and dropped comfrey into my garlic beds and now I’m getting comfrey sprouts all over the place! Any advice? I’m now afeared to propagate it further.  

These are Russian bocking 14 from Strictly Medicinal Seeds that I planted 14 months ago. I have 2 very nice patches and I was planning to put a clump under each of our food forest trees, as well as a few near my apiary (which I’m in the midst of building)

Why are they sprouting from leaves I pulled and used as fertilizer in October? Could it be that I yanked the leaves out, vs snipped? Thanks for any advice.
 
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Hi Martha,
Welcome to Permies.  This thread may help to answer your question
https://permies.com/t/241431
Comfrey is great in the right places. It easily sprouts from bits of root and stem that are in contact with the ground I suggest to dig out the plants you don't want and make into a liquid fertiliser.  You can also add nettle to the mix if you have any.
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I think you are pretty much on target with the pull vs snip. A tiny bit of root material is all it takes and comfrey will do its best to persist.

I will echo Paul and give a shoutout to making liquid fertilizer with it. This helps prevent any potential oopsie daisies.

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Anne Miller
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I like the idea of using the sprouts as liquid fertilizer.

I also thought maybe the sprouts could be moved to a better location.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
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Hugo Morvan
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Did you grow it from seed? And then the leafs fell on the soil and rooted...
That's a very bad thing if i understood right.
I've heard people say they had a lot of work to get it out of neighbors gardens after the seeds had been dispersed by birds. Full time job, thinking of moving etc. Why do people not worn a bit more on these fora. I don't get it!
I'd kill it with a passion.
But comfrey is awesome, mine is superb. I found some by the side of the road, somebody else as well. But they do not have seeds. Just chop the giant rootball in bits and you've got 20 more.

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Martha In the Garden
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Anne Miller wrote:I like the idea of using the sprouts as liquid fertilizer.

I also thought maybe the sprouts could be moved to a better location.



I fed them to the chooks- they were happy!😁

I didn’t grow it from seed, I bought cuttings, and I understood them to be sterile, hence my surprise.

Thanks for the helpful info, I definitely don’t want it to take over, but it’s a pretty nice plant for chooks, fertilizer, medicine, etc.
 
Anne Miller
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Martha said, I didn’t grow it from seed, I bought cuttings, and I understood them to be sterile, hence my surprise.



That comfrey is sterile, it does not produce seeds.

It still can be propagated by cuttings and root division.

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J Garlits
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That is my understanding. It is going to spread, but from under the soil, not the top.

j

Anne Miller wrote:

Martha said, I didn’t grow it from seed, I bought cuttings, and I understood them to be sterile, hence my surprise.



That comfrey is sterile, it does not produce seeds.

It still can be propagated by cuttings and root division.

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Martha In the Garden
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I knew I could propagate them from root cuttings, I now have a deeper respect for the tenacity of comfrey!
 
Anne Miller
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Jim Garlits wrote:That is my understanding. It is going to spread, but from under the soil, not the top.



A good experiment would be to take some cutting, place them in water, and see what happens.

It would surprise me if roots don't form.  I have propagated lots of different plants from cuttings.

Here are some threads that might be of interest to folks:

https://permies.com/t/156505/Comfrey-success-propagating-individual-leaves

https://permies.com/t/140107/buy-comfrey#1099106

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