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Comfrey - when to stop harvesting for season?

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posted 7 years ago

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Hello all!

I was wondering when to stop harvesting my comfrey for the season?

It is mid September in zone 5b and I have a lot of comfrey to harvest but heard somewhere you should stop at a certain time to allow the plant to store up energy for the winter.

I have about 60-90 days to first frost....will this be enough time if I harvest now?

Thanks.

Craig Dobbson

steward

Posts: 2719

Location: Maine (zone 5)

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posted 7 years ago

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I'd say that you have more than enough time to get another crop off of it. You really can't kill that stuff, trust me. I've tried. LOL

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Jim Fry

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Location: Stone Garden Farm Richfield Twp., Ohio

posted 7 years ago

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We pick as long as there are nice leaves.
We piled a foot of wood chips on some comfrey last Spring. It made it through a couple weeks later. Tough herb to kill. And it loves to spread.

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Todd Parr

pollinator

Posts: 1793

Location: Wisconsin, zone 4

posted 7 years ago

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I usually stop now, not for the sake of the plants, but for the sake of the spiders. Hundreds of them can over-winter in the big comfrey leaves.

"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."

Craig Dobbson

steward

Posts: 2719

Location: Maine (zone 5)

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posted 7 years ago

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Todd Parr wrote:I usually stop now, not for the sake of the plants, but for the sake of the spiders. Hundreds of them can over-winter in the big comfrey leaves.

That's a good point! I always feel so bad when I see people doing the "full fall cleanup" leaving nothing for the predators and prey to hang out in over the winter. Then again, I usually take all of the brush and leaves from the curbside paper bags so their loss is my gain. SoOOOOOoooo much mulch. Happy garden.

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Jeremiah Redden

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posted 7 years ago

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Yeah didn't really even think about the spiders and preditory insects! lol. Maybe I will cut back half of them (have like 20 plants going).

Thanks again for all the advice!

Craig Dobbson

steward

Posts: 2719

Location: Maine (zone 5)

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posted 7 years ago

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by the way Welcome to Permies!

"You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result”
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Todd Parr

pollinator

Posts: 1793

Location: Wisconsin, zone 4

posted 7 years ago

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Jeremiah Redden wrote:Yeah didn't really even think about the spiders and preditory insects! lol. Maybe I will cut back half of them (have like 20 plants going).

Thanks again for all the advice!

If you're like me, you'll have a lot more than that

I love comfrey. It has so many uses and is so easy to propagate that I have it everywhere.

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