Comfrey is generally trouble free once established, although weaker or stressed plants can suffer from comfrey rust or mildew. This is best done in hot, dry summer weather, wherein the dry conditions will help to kill off any remaining root stumps. The best way to eradicate comfrey is to very carefully dig it out, removing as much of the root as possible. Rotovation can be successful, but may take several seasons. It is however difficult to remove comfrey once established as it is very deep rooting, and any fragments left in the soil will regrow. It is therefore advisable to split it up every few years. Despite being sterile, Bocking 14 Russian Comfrey will steadily increase in size. It is advisable to wear gloves when handling comfrey. After the growing season, leaving comfrey beds fallow may deliver higher yields in future harvests, as the plant builds up energy reserves in its roots.Ĭomfrey should be harvested by using either shears, a sickle, or a scythe to cut the plant about 2 inches above the ground, taking care handling it because the leaves and stems are covered in hairs that can irritate the skin. Comfrey can continue growing into mid-autumn, but it is not advisable to continue taking cuttings after early autumn in order to allow the plants to build up winter reserves. It is said that the best time to cut comfrey is shortly before flowering, for this is when it is at its most potent in terms of the nutrients that it offers. Comfrey will rapidly regrow, and will be ready for further cutting about 5 weeks later. They are ready for cutting when about 60 cm (24 in) high, and, depending on seasonal conditions, this is usually in mid-Spring. Mature comfrey plants can be harvested up to four or five times a year. Although it is a tenacious grower, it will benefit from the addition of animal manure applied as a mulch, and can also be mulched with other nitrogen rich materials such as lawn clippings, and is one of the few plants that will tolerate the application of fresh urine diluted 50:50 with water, although this should not be regularly added as it may increase salt levels in the soil and have adverse effects on soil life such as worms. Any flowering stems should be removed as these will weaken the plant in its first year.Ĭomfrey is a fast-growing plant, producing huge amounts of leaf during the growing season, and hence is very nitrogen hungry. Comfrey should not be harvested in its first season as it needs to become established. Keep the bed well watered until the young plants are established. Offsets should be planted 0.6–1 m (2 ft 0 in–3 ft 3 in) apart with the growing points just below the surface, while root segments should be buried about 5 cm (2.0 in) deep. The comfrey bed should be well prepared by weeding thoroughly, and dressing with manure if available. This strain was developed during the 1950s by Lawrence D Hills, the founder of the Henry Doubleday Research Association (the organic gardening organisation itself named after the Quaker pioneer who first introduced Russian Comfrey into Britain in the nineteenth century) following trials at Bocking, near Braintree, the original home of the organization. CultivationĬomfrey has long been recognized by both organic gardeners and herbalists for its great usefulness and versatility of particular interest is the "Bocking 14" cultivar of Russian Comfrey. × uplandicum is generally more bristly and has flowers which tend to be more blue or violet. asperum, Symphytum × uplandicum, known as Russian Comfrey, which is widespread in the British Isles, and which interbreeds with S. It is native to Europe, growing in damp, grassy places, and is locally frequent throughout Ireland and Britain on river banks and ditches. Comfrey ( Symphytum officinale L.) is a perennial herb of the family Boraginaceae with a black, turnip-like root and large, hairy broad leaves that bears small bell-shaped flowers of various colours, typically cream or purplish, which may be striped.
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