Comfrey is a wonderful and attractive plant. It has a long history as a medicinal herb, fertilizer, and animal feed. The variety of Comfrey which we grow and sell is Bocking 14, which we have actually been growing and using since 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comfrey goes dormant in Central California in December, coming back with many more little shoots, each a new plant, in February. This year it was later and is just now (April) coming back. The plant needs about 3\u2019 x 3\u2019 of growing space. It has lovely little bluish\/pinkish\/purplish flowers. However, if allowed to flower, it will stop putting energy into growing more leaves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s often said that once you plant Comfrey, you can never get rid of it.\u00a0 That might be true in a location like Illinois where it rains a lot in the summer. Here, where we are really in a desert, \u00a0just don\u2019t water it and it WILL die off. I speak from experience. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comfrey puts down very deep roots and brings up nutrients from way down in the soil, so it can help neighboring plants to get more nutrients.\u00a0 The leaves, which can get at least 18\u201d long, can be used for mulch to get some of those nutrients into other plants. The leaves can be applied – whole or chopped – directly around plants. It can also be made into a fertilizer tea but just putting the leaves on and around plants is much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because Comfrey puts down roots so deep, be sure to plant it where you want it to remain. Otherwise, in time you\u2019ll have roots down so deep you won\u2019t be able to get rid of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bocking 14 variety of Comfrey reproduces from the roots. It does NOT spread with\/by seeds. Comfrey is really easy to grow: just give it enough water (but not to stand in water), sun, and room. To get more plants, separate the shoots as they come through the soil in late winter. Every little shoot is a new plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in the 1970s, Comfrey was being used in Great Britain by some farmers as feed for their cattle. As I recall, it was said to contain more protein than alfalfa. In fact, our main use for Comfrey is for green feed for the llamas and poultry during the summer when fresh greens are scarce. One can harvest Comfrey four times a year, whether using it as a livestock feed or fertilizer\/mulch. Once the plant is 2-3 feet tall, cut it down to about 2\u201d high. It will grow back again and again until it goes dormant in winter. Thus it is a continual source of livestock feed or green mulch for plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comfrey has a long history as a medicinal herb. One of the other names it\u2019s known by is “boneset,” or “knitbone.” Comfrey leaves and roots are used in various salves, teas, etc. Young leaves can be used as a salad green. We used to use it in a \u201cgreen drink,\u201d blended with pineapple juice, sunflower seeds, almonds, and dates. \u00a0Yummy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NOTE: Many sources do not recommend ingesting comfrey as there are some toxic alkaloids in the roots of some varieties which could be a problem in large quantities or if the roots are refined to concentrate the alkaloids.\u00a0 I can only say that before we learned about that \u201dwarning\u201d, we had used the leaves (not the roots) with our poultry and animals and in our \u201cgreen drink\u201d for several years with no problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Comfrey is a wonderful and attractive plant. It has a long history as a medicinal herb, fertilizer, and animal feed. The variety of Comfrey which we grow and sell is Bocking 14, which we have actually been growing and using since 1970. Comfrey goes dormant in Central California in December, coming back with many more … Continue reading Growing & Using Comfrey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new","with-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faustfamilyfarm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}