I'm in SW Ontario, Canada, where it gets a little chilly at times. Last spring, I added some raised beds using 1' lattice. I put down a layer of
chicken coop shavings and built the beds up with dirt and
compost, with some rabbit manure as well, with mulch on top. I planted 3 comfrey plants in the new bed and had a great garden last year, but I didn't get around to digging up my comfrey to take to my new place.
A couple of days ago I broke through the snow and ice to try to dig out the comfrey, expecting no joy. I was surprised, not only that the plants were easy to dig up, but to find green shoots on the comfrey under the ice, and seemingly as many worms and other soil life as I'd find in the other 2 seasons. When
gardening, I can't even dig with a hand trowel without finding at least one earthworm.
My plan is to start farming full-time, with an emphasis on MIG pasturing for
cattle, pigs, and
chickens. My first thought was that the comfrey would be a fantastic forage if it got such a head start with growth under the snow, but I then realised that the soil may be more responsible for the comfrey's green shoots than the comfrey. It's been around 0-20*F around here for weeks and, being raised (3' wide), I would have expected the soil to be frozen.
So, I guess my question is: What's the cause of the comfrey's growth, plant hardiness or soil quality? As a follow-up does anyone here use comfrey as a significant portion of their forage? If so, can you tell me when to expect it to start growing in the spring? I guess my third question is does anyone have any recent resources that give a break-down of comfrey's nutrition profile, ie protein,
energy, etc? I've seen numbers anywhere from 10-35% for protein.
Thanks for any help.