I planted the root cuttings on July 6th. The earliest ones broke ground in 11 days.
All came up within 2 weeks. Here they are in 3 gallon grow bags 6 weeks after planting the roots.
I took the 3 smallest plants and they are now in big 10 gallon pots.
Fertilized with aged chicken manure.
Before taking this pic I took a few leaves from each plant.
I offered them to my chickens and they LOVED it!
The Bocking 4 variety is the way to go.
Here is some info on Comfrey from an article I wrote a few months ago:
The leaves can grow up to 2 feet long in the right conditions.
You can chop the entire plant 5 or more times each season and it will grow back.
Feed the leaves to your chickens, rabbits, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs, sheep or cows.
You can also grow quantities of Comfrey and dry the leaves for Winter use.
Animals enjoy it either way and even dried, it retains its very high protein content.
There is a common variety of Comfrey known as True Comfrey but most people use a Russian variety that can’t produce viable seed. This is because Comfrey grows TOO well and people want to maintain control of it.
Even with the Bocking varieties, they propagate easily through root cuttings. You can start with one plant and in 2 years, have a thousand plants if you wish. Bocking 14 is the most popular variety but I have recently planted Bocking 4, which is said to be even more palatable to animals.
Comfrey is also renowned for its medicinal properties. It can be made into a poultice that helps healing with ailments that reach all the way into the bones. Comfrey fell out of favor in the 80’s when an Australian report surfaced claiming that it’s alkaloids are harmful if ingested.
I don’t know of any people who are eating Comfrey but many people now dispute those findings and many people report making Comfrey a large part of the diet for their livestock without manifesting any ill effects. According to the book, The Safety of Comfrey, by J.A Pembrey, “there appear to be no cases, in medical history or veterinary records, of humans or animals, showing clinical symptoms, of pyrrolizidine alkaloid poisoning from the consumption of comfrey.”
From the site – Simple Unhooked Living –
“Foster Savage, who takes credit for introducing comfrey into Australia in 1954, fed it to his stock in great quantities (and ate quite a bit of it himself.) He found that milk production increased dramatically in his cows, with the bonus of thick cream. He also fed his pigs as much comfrey as they could eat and the quality of his meat became legendary. His butcher remarked that he had never seen pigs with such healthy livers.”
Comfrey is available as seed, or for the Bocking varieties, as root cuttings, live plants or just the crowns of newly emerging leaves.
All came up within 2 weeks. Here they are in 3 gallon grow bags 6 weeks after planting the roots.
I took the 3 smallest plants and they are now in big 10 gallon pots.
Fertilized with aged chicken manure.
Before taking this pic I took a few leaves from each plant.
I offered them to my chickens and they LOVED it!
The Bocking 4 variety is the way to go.
Here is some info on Comfrey from an article I wrote a few months ago:
The leaves can grow up to 2 feet long in the right conditions.
You can chop the entire plant 5 or more times each season and it will grow back.
Feed the leaves to your chickens, rabbits, ducks, turkeys, goats, pigs, sheep or cows.
You can also grow quantities of Comfrey and dry the leaves for Winter use.
Animals enjoy it either way and even dried, it retains its very high protein content.
There is a common variety of Comfrey known as True Comfrey but most people use a Russian variety that can’t produce viable seed. This is because Comfrey grows TOO well and people want to maintain control of it.
Even with the Bocking varieties, they propagate easily through root cuttings. You can start with one plant and in 2 years, have a thousand plants if you wish. Bocking 14 is the most popular variety but I have recently planted Bocking 4, which is said to be even more palatable to animals.
Comfrey is also renowned for its medicinal properties. It can be made into a poultice that helps healing with ailments that reach all the way into the bones. Comfrey fell out of favor in the 80’s when an Australian report surfaced claiming that it’s alkaloids are harmful if ingested.
I don’t know of any people who are eating Comfrey but many people now dispute those findings and many people report making Comfrey a large part of the diet for their livestock without manifesting any ill effects. According to the book, The Safety of Comfrey, by J.A Pembrey, “there appear to be no cases, in medical history or veterinary records, of humans or animals, showing clinical symptoms, of pyrrolizidine alkaloid poisoning from the consumption of comfrey.”
From the site – Simple Unhooked Living –
“Foster Savage, who takes credit for introducing comfrey into Australia in 1954, fed it to his stock in great quantities (and ate quite a bit of it himself.) He found that milk production increased dramatically in his cows, with the bonus of thick cream. He also fed his pigs as much comfrey as they could eat and the quality of his meat became legendary. His butcher remarked that he had never seen pigs with such healthy livers.”
Comfrey is available as seed, or for the Bocking varieties, as root cuttings, live plants or just the crowns of newly emerging leaves.
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