Comfrey -- believe the hype! A detailed post on using comfrey for fertility in a market garden

There's a plethora of info out there about comfrey but not much detail regarding establishing and managing a comfrey patch so I thought I would write an article to share my experience on this and how we grow comfrey as part of our fertility strategy in the market garden.

When writing this article I could not resist to include some of the story of this incredible plant and of the people that have been enchanted by its prowess. So we'll start with a condensed story of comfrey and why I think you should certainly believe the hype.

To view this post with photos and tables please see
http://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.bg
... -hype.html

Part 1. Introduction to Comfrey

A member of the Borage family, Comfrey - Symphytum spp. is native to Europe and Asia and there are 40 recorded species of Comfrey throughout that region. The plant most commonly referred to and used in gardens is Russian Comfrey - Symphytum x uplandicum, a naturally occurring hybrid of two wild species: Common Comfrey - Symphytum officinale and Prickly Comfrey - Symphytum asperum.
A few centuries back the hybrid Symphytum x uplandicum came to the attention of an original ecotrepreneur Henry Doubleday (1810 – 1902) and he widely promoted the plant as a food and forage crop. Years later, and after two world wars, Lawrence D Hills (1911–1991) would continue Henry Doubleday's Comfrey crusade.

In the 1950's Hills developed a Comfrey research program in the village of Bocking, near Braintree in the UK. The original trial site is on the plot of land now occupied by the Doubleday Gardens housing development. Lawrence Hills lived at 20 Convent Lane just around the corner of the trail site.



The area highlighted in red was the site of the Bocking 14 trails. Today, it is home to the housing development named Doubleday Gardens in memory of Henry Doubleday. The red dot is where Hills lived.

At this site Hills trialed at least 21 Comfrey "strains" each one named after the village Bocking.

Strain fourteen was identified as being the most nutrient rich non-seeding strain and 'Bocking 14' began its journey into gardens far and wide across the world.

As a consequence of his research into comfrey and organic gardening, Hills founded HDRA (Henry Doubleday Research Organisiation). HDRA moved from Bocking to Wolston, near Coventry at the present site of Ryton Organic gardens in 1985, where today you can find ten acres of fully landscaped organic gardens. HDRA is now known as Garden Organic and is one of the worlds leading organic gardening organisations.

It's amusing to think how the chance offspring of two wild plants can have so much influence!

Regarding the other 20 strains, it appears all but 'Bocking 4' are lost. I'll be visiting Ryton Gardens in the summer to see if I can track down "the lost Bocking strains". If anyone has any other idea where I might find them please get in touch!



So let's take a look at why these guys found this plant so enthralling.


Comfrey Uses

Medicinal Use - Comfrey has been cultivated, at least, since 400 BC as a healing herb. The Greeks and Romans commonly used Comfrey to stop heavy bleeding, treat bronchial problems and heal wounds and broken bones. Poultices were made for external wounds and tea was consumed for internal ailments. Comfrey has been reported to promote healthy skin with its mucilage content that moisturizes and soothes and promotes cell proliferation. This plant is my first port of call if ever I need to dress a wound. Simply take a few leaves brush them together to remove the hairs and wrap them around the wound and apply light pressure. It's incredibly effective at stopping the bleeding, reducing the pain and healing the wound.

Biomass - Comfrey produces large amounts of foliage from late May until hard frosts in October or November. The plant is excellent for producing mulch and can be cut from 2 - 5 times per year depending on how well the plants are watered and fed. The plant grows rapidly after each harvest.
In our gardens we have Comfrey 'Bocking 14' located next to each fruit tree in order to have a renewable source of mulch just where we need it. We also grow in patches as part of our fertility strategy in the market garden and have patches in the wildflower meadows.(details below)
We recently supplied 1000 'Bocking 14' cuttings to Oxygenisis a business in Germany who are experimenting with using this plant for carbon capture.

Mineral Dam – The Comfrey has deep roots of up to 2 m that utilize nutrients deep in the subsoil that would otherwise wash away with the underground soil water or remain inaccessible to other plants. The nutrients - once taken up from the roots - are relocated throughout the plant as and where needed with some of them ending up in the Comfrey leaf mass. When cutting the leaf mass and applying to the soil surface the mined nutrients are returned and again made accessible to shallower rooted crop plants.

Biodiversity - The bell shaped flowers provide nectar and pollen to many species of bees and other insects from late May until the first frosts in late Autumn. Lacewings are said to lay eggs on Comfrey and Spiders overwinter on the plant. Parasitoid Wasps and Spiders will hunt on and around Comfrey.



Xylocopa violacea - Violet carpenter bee feeding from our comfrey patch

Pest and Disease Prevention and Control - Research indicates that a comfrey solution can be used to prevent powdery mildew. Pest predators such as spiders, lacewings and parasatoid wasps associate with this plant. Its best to leave some plants alone in order to sustain pest predator relationships.

Ground Cover – Some species can quickly spread to form a thick ground cover and work particularly well for ground cover on the sunny side under shrubs and trees. Symphytum tuberosum - Tuberous Comfrey seems to be the best species for this.
Fertilizer - Comfrey leaves contain a great balance of major plant nutrients (N,P,K) and can be feed to plants as powder, direct mulch or by steeping chopped Comfrey leaves in water for several weeks to produce a thick, dark liquid that can be diluted with water and applied to plant roots.
More on this below.
Nutritional Value of Comfrey - You can see from the below table that wilted Comfrey contains significantly higher quantities of Potash compared to other organic fertilisers. Its well recorded that Comfrey is an excellent source of potassium (K) a major plant nutrient that is required by plants in large amounts for proper growth and reproduction.



Taken from Lawrence D.Hills - The Comfrey Report

Animal Fodder - Comfrey has a long history for use as an animal feed. Lawrence D Hills dedicated books to this topic*. The leaves are best received by animals wilted. Fresh leaves can be eaten by pigs, sheep, and poultry but cattle, rabbits and horses will only consume wilted leaves.

Human Consumption - Symphytum officianale and Symphytum x uplandicum are both reported to be used for salad and potherb and are best when cooked. Personally I'm not keen on the texture but will have the occasional nibble from the garden using the new growth to mix in a spring green salad.

Caution - Although Comfrey has been used as a food crop, in the past 20 years scientific studies reported that Comfrey may be carcinogenic, since it appeared to cause liver damage and cancerous tumors in rats. These reports have temporarily restricted development of Comfrey as a food crop. In light of this, the regular consumption of Comfrey is not advisable.


Plant Description

Life cycle - Herbaceous perennial

Growth habit - Comfrey begins growth in early spring and compact clusters of young leaves are soon visible in the crown of the old plant. Around late spring, the leaf blades with long petioles have grown to over 35 cm high. Basal leaves are large, lance-shaped, stalked, and coarsely hairy. The leaves dye back following the first frost and remain dormant for winter. Many species can spread vigorously via seed and are generally not welcome in the garden because of this. Other species can spread via tubers and all species quickly regenerate from broken root pieces.

Flowering - Starts in late May or early June and continues until the first frost in late Autumn. The bell-shaped flowers with pedicels are in terminal cymes or one-sided clusters. Flowers of Common Comfrey are usually creamy yellow, but white, red, or purple types have been found in Europe. Prickly Comfrey has pink and blue flowers while Russian Comfrey has blue, purple, or red-purple flowers. Tuberous Comfrey has creamy white flowers. Vegetative growth does not cease with the start of flowering, and the plant will add new stems continuously during the growing season. Most comfrey plants can be somewhat invasive spreading via seed to parts of the garden where they are not wanted. 'Bocking 14' will flower and provide nectar and pollen but will not produce viable seed.

Roots - Some plants species have short, thick, tuberous roots such as Symphytum tuberosum. Others such as Symphytum x uplandicum have deep and expansive root systems.



'Bocking 14' root system from our market garden. Grown from a crown division. The roots extended at least 50 cm down within the first 5 months of growth



Plant Requirements

Light - Needs full sun for good biomass production but grows fine in the shade.

Shade - Tolerates light shade (about 50%)

Moisture - Some species are drought tolerant e.g Symphytum tuberosum. Cultivated plants require irrigation.

USDA Hardiness Zone - 4-9 Comfrey crowns and roots are very winter hardy
Soil - Comfrey is adaptable to many soils, but prefers moist, fertile soils.
pH - Tolerates a wide range (6.5-8.5) Although not very sensitive to soil pH, highest yields are reported to occur on soils with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0


Part 2. How to set up and manage a Comfrey patch


Setting up a Comfrey Patch

Perhaps your're interested in growing comfrey to feed your animals, for medicine, for mulch, for compost or your're slightly masochistic and want to roll around naked in the pricky beds of biomass (not me ) In any case, here's how to do it.

The plant we use in our gardens is Symphytum x uplandicum - 'Bocking 14' , a sterile cultivar that produces copious quantities of nutrient dense biomass. The following information is based on using this plant.

Choosing the Site

We're growing for biomass and want the plants to receive as much light as possible. Accordingly, we lay out our beds on an east to west axis (we're in the northern hemisphere).
Irrigation is necessary if you want to get good yields from the plants. In a dry climate picking a place with access to reliable irrigation is of paramount important.
In areas of low rainfall using the gradient of the land to channel precipitation towards your beds will reduce the water needs of your plants. In areas of high rainfall with a high water table you should consider diverting water away from the beds.
Once established, Comfrey is difficult to get rid of, so choose a site where you want it to stay. Don't plant Comfrey in any area you cultivate as the broken root pieces quickly establish into new plants and can out compete the slower growing crops.
Positioning Comfrey downhill from where you expect leachate to be present, i.e downhill from a manure pile , compost heap, outside toilet, animal pen etc, can provide passive fertility to the plants and rescue otherwise lost minerals from draining away with the sub soil ground water.
Grow the comfrey where you want to use it. As you'll see later we may be harvesting over 1/4 ton biomass from our patch and don't want to be carrying that over long distances


Preparing the site - Raised beds are a major part of our fertility strategy and overtime retain water and nutrients very efficiently. I use 1.3 m wide beds surrounded by 50 cm paths for our crops as this allows easy access for harvesting everywhere in the beds without ever having to tread on the soil and the paths are wide enough to take our lawnmower.

Here is an example of a 10 m long comfrey bed on our site.



Diagram of a Comfrey Bed from our Market Garden

To form a bed the area should be cleared of all plants, best achieved by sheet mulching the season before. Pernicious perennials or tap rooted biennials should be dug out. After you have cleared the whole area, mark out the bed shape with string and dig out 50 cm wide paths around your beds applying the soil to the surface of the planting area thereby creating the initial rise of the bed. Fork over the beds well. If a hardpan is present take the time and effort to eliminate it before planting.



Raised beds in our Market Garden

Depending on the quality of your soil you may want to add extra compost before planting into the bed. If you have sheet mulched the area before hand all you need to do is add a good 20 cm thick of straw mulch (or some other mulch) and it's ready for planting. A good mulch to start with will help keep the weeds down while your comfrey gets going.

You can alter the depth and gradient of the paths to facilitate the required direction of water movement.

Planting Material - You can plant out with crown divisions or root cuttings best done in the spring when the soil has warmed. A crown division can be obtained from simply putting a spade through the center of a mature comfrey plant and transplanting the divided sections.For our beds I divided 2 yr old plants into quarters sometimes sixths and these established very well in the first year. Its bests not to harvest the leaf biomass in the first year in order to allow a deep root system to develop. However if you use large divisions you can start harvesting in July.



Our Comfrey Beds 6 weeks after planting

Root cuttings are a great way to plant out large areas of Comfrey. The cuttings should be grown on in small pots with 50% compost 50% river sand mix kept moist and planted out in the spring as soon as the first leaves emerge and the soil has warmed. If you are planting large numbers of root cuttings you can plant directly into the beds by creating "nests" in the straw, adding two cupped handfuls of the above mentioned potting mix and plant the cuttings into this. Keep them moist like a wrung out sponge and the success rate will be very close to 100%


'Bocking 14' root cuttings from our Bionursery

Spacing - The plants should be spaced 60 cm apart in rows and 60 cm apart at diagonals between rows. Plant the rows 15 cm from the edge of the beds.



Comfrey planting plan

Maintenance

Cutting - In the first year allow the plants to establish so that the roots develop well and penetrate deep into the subsoil. Remove any weeds around the plants leaving them on the surface. The following year the cutting can begin. You can scythe the beds for a quick harvest or cut each plant individually with a pair of secateurs or shears cutting to 5 or so cm from ground level. Watch out you don't pull any root pieces up with the leaves as they may regrow wherever they land.
The leaves are prickly so if you have sensitive hands wear gloves. Cut the Comfrey as the flowering stalks emerge up to 4 times a year. Allow the plants to flower at least once during the season to provide bee fodder to a range of native bees and honey bees. Leave the last flush of leaves before the winter so that invertebrates can find winter shelter in the undergrowth. You may need to weed between cuts every now and then but generally the comfrey will quickly cover the surface.

Feeding - After you have cut the Comfrey, mow the pathways between the beds and empty the trimmings around the base of the Comfrey plants. Any trimmings from lawns and hedges in the surrounding area can also be used.

We are experimenting with growing a nitrogen fixing hedging and ground cover plants adjacent to the patch in order to feed our comfrey. We call this the biomass belt and we'll be publishing the design of this polyculture along with species lists and how to establish and manage this in the near future.

A most excellent comfrey feed is undiluted urine applied at a rate of approx 500 ml per plant twice per growing season. Click here for a previous post on using urine as a fertiliser.

Irrigation - Comfrey will produce more biomass if irrigated and in dry climates it's essential to irrigate. Comfrey plants wilt very fast in hot conditions and will stop photosynthesising at this point.
20 L m2 per week of drought should be more than adequate. The beauty of biological systems are that, if managed properly, each year the soils improve and the ability of the soil to store water will improve over time.

We use a passive irrigation system diverting water from a mountain stream into the paths around the beds. The paths fill with water, we raise the level by blocking the low points with sacks of sawdust and the water is drawn throughout the soil via capillary action.



Passive irrigation in our market garden.
The paths fill with water and the water permeates throughout the soil via capillary action
How we use the comfrey

As Mulch - Freshly cut Comfrey leaves make good mulch because they have high nitrogen content, and don't pull nitrogen from the soil while decomposing. Comfrey's high potassium content makes it especially beneficial for vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, berries, and fruit trees.

With adequate feed and watering we've seen yields of 2 - 3 kg of biomass per plant per cut.




Comfrey beds establishing well. This bed was planted with divided crowns 5 months prior to this photo being taken



Expected Yields

Here are some records from Lawrence D.Hills (Comfrey Report) supplied to him by UK gardeners in the 1960's


Based on these records I calculated a yield of approx. 5.5 kg of biomass per plant each year. Using this figure one of our beds should produce approx 286 kg of biomass. We'll shall see as this year we begin our own records.We're looking to gather some solid data on how comfrey performs in our climate and we'll be recording the yields from our patch starting this season and for at least the next 5 yrs. For more info on our record keeping and research programs see Polyculture Market Garden Study.

If you would like to join the "who can grow the most comfrey" experiment and contribute data to our records send us an email. It will be great to have records from all over the world.

Liquid Fertliser - What I like to call "Comfert" Fill a barrel, preferably with a bottom tap and a gauze on the inside (to prevent clogging) about 3/4 full with freshly cut Comfrey and add water to fill the barrel. Cover it, and let it steep for 3 to 6 weeks. The smell from the resulting liquid is far from attractive so approach with caution The tea may be used full strength or diluted by half or more. Don't apply before heavy rain is forecast as most of the nutrients suspended in the liquid will wash straight through the soil. For the best results apply the feed to your vegetables when they are in most need of the extra fertility. This will be different for each crop - for example, tomatoes are best fed when they are setting fruit and then any time during the fruiting period. Applying comfert before this can be counter productive and make your plants more susceptible to pest problems. The black slurry at the bottom of the barrel can be dispersed evenly back over the Comfrey patch.


Liquid fertilizer concentrate -"Comfert Plus" can also be made by packing fresh-cut comfrey tops into an old bucket, weighing them down with something heavy, covering tightly, and waiting a few weeks for them to decompose into a black slurry. You can put a hole in the bottom of the bucket and collect the concentrate in another container as it drips out. Dilute this comfrey concentrate about 15 to 1 with water, and use as you would Comfert. You can seal this concentrate in plastic jugs until you are ready to use it.

Warning! - Comfert stinks like hell. My nieces came to visit from London last year and offered to help out in the market garden. One of the tasks that day was to apply Comfert to the crops…… let's just say it did not end well and we had a much better experience taking softwood cuttings the next day.

Plant Nutrient Value of Comfrey

According to Martin Crawford in Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops one cut of comfrey from one plant contains 0.5g of Nitrogen (N) and 10g of potassium (K) to crops.

Based on this I calculated how much Potassium (K), Nitrogen (N) and biomass the 13 m2 comfrey patch can potentially produce in a year.



Below is a table indicating how many comfrey cuts are needed to meet the Nitrogen and Potassium needs of various moderate and heavy cropping fruit and nut trees and annual vegetables.


Table adapted from Martin Crawford' s Creating a Forest Garden:

Biodiversity

In order to provide habitat for nesting spiders and invertebrates the last growth of Comfrey leaves can be left uncut before the winter. We also allow the plants to flower at least once between cuts to provide bee fodder to a range of native bees as well as honey bees and leave some plants around the garden untouched.


Here's a few plants we planted into a wildflower meadow patch of the market garden. This area is cut once a year and dried for the rabbits winter hay.

Its worth noting that cutting back the flowering Comfrey when neighboring crop plants are in flower will drive the pollinators to your crops increasing the likelihood of successful pollination.



Photos of invertebrates on our Comfrey plants - by Peter Alfrey

Voila! You are now ready to embark upon your own Comfrey Crusade and start growing this fabulous plant

If you would like to stay informed about our comfrey trails and receive our new articles please email us. For more of our posts see our blog - http://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.bg/

http://www.balkep.org


References

For more on Lawrence D.Hills findings on Comfrey see his book Comfrey Past, Present and Future . You can also find the below books of Lawrence D Hills books for free at Soil and Health library.

*Russian Comfrey: A Hundred Tons an Acre of Stock Feed or Compost for Farm, Garden or Smallholding
Comfrey Report: The Story of the World's Fastes t Protein Builderand Herbal Healer


Lawrence D Hills at the Bocking Trials Field . The home of 'Bocking 14'.


Thank you to Dr Francis Raynes from Coventry University for informing me on the history of the Bocking sites.

Comfrey - T.M. Teynor1, D.H. Putnam2, J.D. Doll3, K.A. Kelling3, E.A. Oelke2, D.J. Undersander3, and E.S. Oplinger3
Comfrey - Fodder, Food & Remedy - L.D. Hills
Comfrey - Past Present and Future - L.D Hills

Thank you Paul! Very informative and detailed post. I've been reading some about comfrey and considering it as a source of mulch for my vegetable gardens. You have given me all the information I need. Well done.

Paul, thanks for the post. Comfrey is indeed a great plant, and definitely my favorite to grow. Bees, especially bumble bees, absolutely love it. I'm going to at least quadruple my number of plants this year so that I can harvest half at a time and leave half for my honeybees and the natives. From a permaculture aspect, you would be hard-pressed to find a better plant. It is easier to propagate than any other plant I have, is entirely maintenance free (at least in my area), and produces beautifully.

Excellent write-up on one of my favorite plants, Thanks, Paul!

Well! I certainly know more about Comfrey after reading this awesome post!

I put some small comfreys at the base of two ailing old oaks in my garden - they seem to rebloom slower than other oaks in the area, and theyre so big Id like to keep them healthy. After reading all this Im wondering - will the oaken tendency to pull water before winter affect the deep roots of the comfrey in a negative way? I wasn't aware they liked some irrigation.
Im not yet guilding for optimization, just trying to keep the 200lb oak branches ON the tree.

Any way to get a large number of cuttings for cheap? It seems something "invasive" like this would also be inexpensive but last time I bought the cuttings were $5 ea. Would love to get a large patch of this going but don't want to spend a ton on it or wait for them to spread.

I also tried starting them from seed and that didn't work, the seeds basically rotted.

Googled and found: http://www.coescomfrey.com/order.html 50 crown cuttings for 82. seems much more reasonable, maybe the reason the other ones I bought were 5. ea is because they were symphytum officionale?

John Master wrote:Googled and found: http://www.coescomfrey.com/order.html 50 crown cuttings for 82. seems much more reasonable, maybe the reason the other ones I bought were 5. ea is because they were symphytum officionale?

John, I may be able to offer a better price than that on Russian comfrey, depending on the definition of a "crown cutting". I have Symphytum x uplandicum root cuttings of various sizes from pencil-size to about 1 1/2" to 2" thick. They are individual roots, about 75% have a crown top. Sometimes roots grow together so I cut them apart. I do not cut them to small pieces like I have seen some other vendors do. I charge a flat rate of $10 per lb. for a mixture of all sizes I dig, and always throw in at least a couple ounces extra of roots to make up for a little dirt and maybe a worm or two Shipping would be $7 for a flat rate padded envelope of 1 to 2 lbs. I can fulfill orders of up to 10 lbs per, that is the maximum I can fit in a large flat rate box. On occasion I have very large roots which weigh 6 to 10 oz and will sell by themselves or in a package deal of just large roots. PM me or email me at kenearlg at gmail dot com if you want to order. Here is a typical pound of small to medium size roots, about 15 pieces - I just dug today:

My cattle and hogs have never waited for comfrey leaves and stems to wilt before devouring them. They eat all of it immediately and don't leave any.

Fantastic summary, Paul.

If you must purchase comfrey, you don't need to purchase a lot of it. After the first year, you can divide your plant into 30 or more new plants (at least in our climate --- it grows so aggressively). By the second year, you'll have more comfrey than you'll know what to do with.


The best natural way to get rid of it is to build a hot compost pile over the top of it. A very HOT HOT compost pile. But even then, if the plant was well established, there may be roots deep in the soil that will outlive the compost heat, and will come back again. I wouldn't call it "invasive" as someone had to plant it there in the first place. But once established, it's a very hardy plant.

Just a point; all other discussion of medicinal use aside, Bocking 14 is NOT the one for any medicinal use. It has much higher concentrations of the dangerous chemicals the standard comfrey (it is not actually the same species, but an inter species hybrid)

I had no success with Comfrey (it died) but have had tremendous success with Cardoon, which grows huge amounts of leaf, and has a big darn taproot, plus is edible. So, if you don't have success with Comfrey, maybe try Cardoon?

Gilbert Fritz wrote:Just a point; all other discussion of medicinal use aside, Bocking 14 is NOT the one for any medicinal use. It has much higher concentrations of the dangerous chemicals the standard comfrey (it is not actually the same species, but an inter species hybrid)

Could you please point me toward the literature regarding that? I love Comfrey and would be interested in reading more about that.

Hello Todd,

Here is a link; I know there are some others out there.

http://www.nantahala-farm.com/comfrey-pyrrolizidine-alkaloids-research-s.shtml

It seems like there is no consensus as to which is more or less dangerous. Some of the info on there says Russian is more dangerous, some says it's less. My own thoughts are that there is no clear evidence that any type of Comfrey is dangerous, but I probably wouldn't eat a pound a day

I can't even seem to find a consensus on the qualities of Bocking 4 versus 14. I believe mine to be Bocking 4. I got it from Coe's comfrey, but I would like to plant the others as well.

Todd Parr wrote:I can't even seem to find a consensus on the qualities of Bocking 4 versus 14.  I believe mine to be Bocking 4.  I got it from Coe's comfrey, but I would like to plant the others as well.

i have the bocking 14 and now just planted the bocking 4. around my pines. anxious to see the difference!

Excellent post. Never knew that history before. Comfrey is definitely a favorite. Very impressive in many aspects.

Started a new garden & apiary 3 years ago. Planted one or two tiny comfrey early in that process. Now have a couple dozen very large plants by dividing those. Bees, chickens, & soil love it. Could probably have an acre or more by now if desired. This year I'm starting new gardens elsewhere. Part of that project is a large hole ... roughly 40 feet diameter & 5 feet deep. Going to use the large biomass of comfrey to help fill the hole with nutrients & build the soil. (a 900 lb pig & horse were buried there many years ago) Eventually it will become an awesome asparagus patch. Converting it into a hugelkultur hole. Logs & sticks on bottom layer. Potatoes will be grown in the lowest part the first year or two. Soil will gradually be added for "hilling" & never removed. The top edge & inside will always have as much comfrey as possible. Plus some wildflowers & chicken foods. Probably a large amount of random old seeds thrown in for one last chance. The hole will also contain a compost pile & slow moving worms of opportunity. The timing of finding this thread is perfect. Intend to start adding the logs & sticks this weekend. Can take a few pix & post them here every month or so. Just for grins I might put a beehive in there too.

It's like this ... build an asparagii hugelhole once or mow it constantly. Easy choice.

Todd Parr wrote:I can't even seem to find a consensus on the qualities of Bocking 4 versus 14.  I believe mine to be Bocking 4.  I got it from Coe's comfrey, but I would like to plant the others as well.

only difference is the depth of the taproots. i believe bocking 14 has the longer root which makes it the more drought tolerant of the 2.

Here's a few pix from day 1 of the hugelhole project. Shrunk them a little too small ... my bad. The transplants in the tubs are somewhat green only because it rained the night before. Prior to that they had been completely ignored in those tubs for exactly 2 weeks. Note all the dead leaves. Some plants were buried under others the entire time. No rain. No love. They looked pathetic. Then I divided one into quarters with a shovel. That particular plant was raised in quality soil. It's now in something akin to concrete that crumbles. It has rained all week since. The plants are all looking much better. No pix of that yet. The hugel pix just show some of the ingredients & basic construction of "the tater lump". An old log, some smaller branches, some decaying branches, & 25 gallons of wood chips. Then added the dirt from the comfrey planting holes. Topped with a thick layer of used chicken coop straw & some quality soil. The planted comfrey is show in one pic. Roughly 15' x 18' perimeter of that part of the hole. I noticed flowers starting on one yesterday. One that I thought didn't survive transplanting 2 months ago has tiny leaves popping out now. Tough plants. And so it begins ...

I was wandering what kind I had so I followed your suggestion and rolled around on it naked. I think its prickly comfrey. The neighbours were bemused.

Short update on the comfrey & hugelhole. No pix because phone is stuck in video mode. Nothing looks significantly different. The completed bed is about twice the size now. A 2 foot perimeter of large branches for the next expansion. This hole will be filled at approximately the rate big limbs fall from our trees. Some will be burned for biochar. The original plan was to grow potatos & fill the hole as they grew. Planted too late in season & none sprouted. Didn't help that some critter kept digging them up. So now there is one watermelon that is doing better than it's twin in the main garden area. Some random beans. Some wildflowers. A few new comfrey transplants are now in the sweet spot too. Some basil in the mix. Most of the initial comfrey transplants survived & are starting to look healthy again. Growing slower than I've experienced elsewhere. They get no water except when it rains. I believe Dr. Redhawk would call the planting medium less than dirt. It's almost like concrete. Still no love. Yet the comfrey is almost large enough to start splitting again. After that I'll probably water them regularly in order to get a few more divisions done before winter. The project has turned into basically a compost pile that I'm growing food on. Soon a significant amount of old cowpies & decomposed leaves will be added. Stay tuned.

Now things looks significantly different. The close up comfrey pix didn't turn out great but most are still alive. Some are doing good. Some are still buried in the jungle. Hacked some of the overgrowth away today to prepare the area for some cow pies. No potatoes from this patch this year but watermelons are a tasty substitute! A few more hiding on the other side too.

Update on the non-tater hugel-ish comfrey hole experiment. The watermelons were delicious! Most of the comfrey is still alive, getting larger, & looking healthier. A reminder that the underlying soil is very poor. Almost hard as rock. We've been getting some rain more or less weekly. Some flowering buckwheat is visible in today's pix too. Have gradually been filling the hole with compost making materials but still nothing special for comfrey. Started adding some ripe old cowpies to the comfrey only after the pix from today. Hoping to get a good burst of growth before winter.

This pic gives an idea of current size & health.



The cat wanted in on the action too.

I noticed that something went wrong with the link to the OP's original blog post; here's a working version.

http://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.com/2016/02/comfrey-believe-hype.html

I am so enamoured with comfrey that I am planting it everywhere. It makes a great weed free barrier around the polytunnel, it is stabilising the edge of my rather steep swales and berms, it is covering the bottom of the fence where the dog tries to get through, it makes a wonderful edge to our driveway, it is planted next to each of my baby willows and will be a guild member for all my fruit and nut trees along with rhubarb in case Paul calls, it will be used as a nitrigen boost for my pigs and chickens when they arrive and I am raising plantlets to grow a huge patch at a friends animal sanctuary for their sickies and to generally lessen their pienso bills. Oh yes,they are so beautiful  in flower so we leave the spring flowers for all the bees.
Salves and ointments? Who has the time?......
Maybe when I have a house and kitchen.

I'm addicted to comfrey too, for all the above reasons.   I have a clump of it at the end of each annual growing bed, along the perimeter of the chicken run, and a big circle around each fruit tree.   I chop and drop for almost 9 months in my temperate growing climate,  and it's pretty :)

AND  this year I've had great success using fresh comfrey leaf poultices on a cracked rib, and a broken pinkie toe.   The reduction of pain/inflammation, as well as 10x faster healing rate is amazing!

Pic issue resolved via a do-over.

@Dan Boone,

Thank you so much for the updated link. I went to the Balkan E P site, but I know so little about how blogs work that I couldn't find it. Much appreciated, as I'd like to look at some of the charts in particular.

j.

im currently at 28 plants and plan to put them in any place thats just growing grass. when they grow they shade out other weeds. i get alot of comments on them from the nieghbors. they like the color and size of them. i cut 2xs a season and turn in my compost pile, dry some for spring fertilizer and chop and drop around all my fruit trees and bushes. they are the only thing i feed my plants. bees love the flowers and all kinds of  good bugs hang out in the leaves. even my chickens like it. I've never met a plant that i love more than hybrid comfrey! this plant thrives on neglect.

steve bossie wrote:im currently at 28 plants and plan to put them in any place thats just growing grass. when they grow they shade out other weeds. i get alot of comments on them from the nieghbors. they like the color and size of them. i cut 2xs a season and turn in my compost pile, dry some for spring fertilizer and chop and drop around all my fruit trees and bushes. they are the only thing i feed my plants. bees love the flowers and all kinds of  good bugs hang out in the leaves. even my chickens like it. I've never met a plant that i love more than hybrid comfrey! this plant thrives on neglect.

I think we should start a comfrey club.
How about COMFREY REGALED by ALL PERMACULTURISTS
i.e. CRAP
I'll make the badges and t-shirts

@Amanda - people in Canada sometimes wear t-shirts with a marijuana leaf on it. I would far prefer to wear one with a comfrey plant on it! If you actually fed your comfrey your "CRAP", it sounds from the article, that it would grow *really* well. So in all seriousness, would planting a ring of comfrey around humanure compost piles be a good secondary line of defense?

That said, I had already planned on trying to divide some of my few comfrey plants. I was suspicious, and having read this article, am now quite sure that they are not getting enough water or sunshine in their current locations. I feel like I'm on the loosing side of 4 annoyingly successful invasive plants that were on my farm before I got here (Himalayan blackberry, English Ivy, Canada thistle and Morning glory) and I don't have the fencing I need to keep the deer at bay let alone keep goats in, so I've been overly cautious about planting comfrey in case I regret its location. Now that I understand the plant better through this article, I think I should go with my tentative plan because I now believe that even if I decide I put it somewhere wrong, I think I'll be able to shade it/drought it out in my climate. Since the places I was thinking of adding it are not places that should need regular cultivation, spreading shouldn't be a problem.

It's  weird because I have been planting the stuff everywhere and, occasionally, it just won't take in one particular spot, whereas 2 metres in any direction it is fine. I do have some around our poo pit and that's doing fine, so I think if you planted it around where you are composting your own poo it would do well and you could chop and drop it on the poo occasionally to keep off any flies while it composts. Although it is supposed to like sunny positions, my best plants are shaded but then we have been over 30C here for months. I found, despite seeing many different methods, taking off  at most 8 plantlets from each parent, leaving a reasonable crown, each with at least one baby leaf, removing the others to mulch the new plant, and giving each a good water over the next week is enough to get them going if they're going to take at all.
Hey, how about COMFREY REALLY ENCOURAGES ECO PRACTICES......but I'm not sure I'd like that on a shirt either.....

they dont spread per se but will continue to grow out from the root crown slowly getting wider. my oldest 6yr. plants are now about 3ft wide. not sure at what size they max out at.

Amanda Launchbury-Rainey wrote:It's  weird because I have been planting the stuff everywhere and, occasionally, it just won't take in one particular spot, whereas 2 metres in any direction it is fine. I do have some around our poo pit and that's doing fine, so I think if you planted it around where you are composting your own poo it would do well and you could chop and drop it on the poo occasionally to keep off any flies while it composts. Although it is supposed to like sunny positions, my best plants are shaded but then we have been over 30C here for months. I found, despite seeing many different methods, taking off  at most 8 plantlets from each parent, leaving a reasonable crown, each with at least one baby leaf, removing the others to mulch the new plant, and giving each a good water over the next week is enough to get them going if they're going to take at all.
Hey, how about COMFREY REALLY ENCOURAGES ECO PRACTICES......but I'm not sure I'd like that on a shirt either.....

here in the northeast, everywhere ive planted it it took. on my lawn i just cut a 12in section of sod out placed a 1in. piece of root the covered w/ 2in. of soil w/ a 2in. mulch of wood chips. never even watered them and so far had 100% germination over the last 6 yrs. on my 1st cut this summer i pulled out a leaf stalk that looked like it had a pea sized peice of root on it. stuck it in the dirt near my nettle patch and is already a 12in. plant! the true comfrey i believe would become invasive here. no other plant besides weeds grows as well as comfrey does here.

That's amazing! I tried something similar this year but with no luck but we have a Mediterranean climate with no Sumner rain and several heatwaves up around 45 so that may be the problem.  I am now going out to dig up a plant and see how many viable plants I can get using your method.  Watch this space!

from what i read and seen myself is comfrey doesn't like heat. we hit 90f a few times here this summer and the comfrey was severely wilted. a 2-3in.  thick wood chip mulch should help keep the roots cool and moist . good luck!

Will do and thank you!

I bought my original plant from a very experienced woman who owns an herb farm. She told me that comfrey will propagate from an inch or less of root. I haven't had any problem with them wilting during summer heat of 90-100 F but they do get some water via weekly-ish rain. The variety of comfrey might be a factor. My original plantings were in quality soil. They never got more that 3 feet diameter. That could be because I kept dividing them to make more comfrey. They sure don't seem to be as invasive as most references indicate though. I have a few in a shady spot right now but am considering splitting them into many parts & moving them into the hugelhole within the next few days so they can start strong after winter. They're doing ok in the shade but growing slower than usual & are stretching for light. I believe they would be an excellent addition around a humanure process. If they'll grow in the almost rock (fairly certain it's crappy fill dirt) in the hugelhole they should grow in just about anything.