Comfrey tea: what about it?

[peppero]

Would anyone please share their experiences with comfrey tea?

jon

[habitat_gardener]

Gets stinky in about a week. I pack a 5-gallon bucket with chopped stems and leaves, add water, and cover. (Same with nettles.) I dilute it before use.

I've used it on and off for several years, but no miracles to report. However, I don't use any other fertilizers (aside from alfalfa pellets in the hole when planting a tomato, and the occasional load of horse manure at a couple gardens). Oh, and I make lots of compost from garden cuttings and kitchen scraps.

[peppero]

Thanks for the reply. I have some Imade and am now using it for some plants I carried over the winter.

jon

[bower]

I have read that comfrey tea is very rich in potassium and that tomatoes love it. Of course, I read that several years after doing the big dig to get rid of comfrey that was taking up space in my garden to no purpose. So alas, no personal experience to report.

[Labradors2]

What a pity that you dug it up .


Interesting that it's high in potassium! I bought some at a garden club plant sale because the flowers are pretty and I was told that it's great for the composter, speeding up the process! Not that I'm in that much of a hurry, but I planted it in an out-of-the-way place beside my composter and snip off the older leaves as they yellow, and toss them in.

Now I will try making some Comfrey tea for my tomatoes!

I have to add that I thought the original poster was asking about Comfrey tea to drink. It has healing properties when applied to the skin, but it can be toxic when taken internally.

Linda

Originally Posted by bower

I have read that comfrey tea is very rich in potassium and that tomatoes love it. Of course, I read that several years after doing the big dig to get rid of comfrey that was taking up space in my garden to no purpose. So alas, no personal experience to report.

[habitat_gardener]

Comfrey has deep roots that bring minerals from deeper levels of the soil. When you make tea or add it to your compost pile, those minerals then become available to plants.

Comfrey is so efficient at healing skin that you need to make sure the wound is not deep, otherwise the skin will heal over before the deeper wound is resolved.

I've also made herbal salves using comfrey (also larrea, calendula, plantain, etc., in a base of olive oil and beeswax). I have seen dramatic results with the salves. Once I caught my thumb in my folding bicycle. PAIN! A dark spot on my thumbnail. Applied lots of salve to the thumb. Pain went away in 15-30 minutes and the dark spot on the nail never got worse.

Some herbalists are now claiming that the pyrollizidine alkaloids in comfrey and borage are so toxic to the liver that they should neither be taken internally nor applied to the skin. (Other herbalists say comfrey has been used for centuries.)

[bower]

In its traditional use to treat sprains and fractured bones, exposure to the toxic alkaloids would have been minimal. But comfrey became the wonder plant of the cosmetic industry for awhile. In the process of scientific rediscovery, it was also found to contain relatively high levels of protein, and on that basis was recommended for use as animal feed. The presence of toxic alkaloids was discovered because some misguided people decided to use comfrey as the mainstay of their own diet... and were poisoned as a result. Since alkaloids can also be absorbed through the skin, its use as a daily cosmetic wasn't a good idea either - and so it was banned.

Comfrey can be invasive in rich soil, and will resprout from any small piece of root. I still have some small ones in the garden, so at some point I will find a place for them where they can grow but be contained, also far away from anything else harvested for root to prevent any error from happening - although the roots are quite distinctive, black skinned. Bumblebees absolutely adore the droopy pink flowers.

[kath]

After reading this thread, I think I'm going to try to get some started this season. Supposedly the fuzz on the leaves will deter the deer since I definitely want to try it outside the fenced garden. Lots about it here, although the article is old:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organ...maz74zhol.aspx

Glad you posted this, jon!

kath

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by bower

...Comfrey can be invasive in rich soil, and will resprout from any small piece of root. ...

Or root hairs! I dug up some comfrey one year to send to someone, and I potted up the extra root hairs. They grew into plants.

My main plant is next to a hose bib and started spreading only after I took out the nearby raspberry patch. But whenever I put my hand in the soil to dig up a few pieces of root, it's kind of scary: the soil is loaded with thick roots.