When do you cut your comfrey?
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You cut it for the flowers to put in iced tea! Then you dig it up and throw it out as it is massively invasive!
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Back in the back to nature days it was affectionately regarded as something of a cure-all; one of its names is ābone knitā, which seems a stretch, but there you have it! I gather that itās not good for your liver, and like all herbals there can be a lot of variation in dosage. And it is very invasive, as Mrs. G knows.
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the bocking hybrids are sterile. i have bocking 4 and 14. i leave the flower stalks for the bees and harvest only the large leaves. doesnt set the plant back much compared to chopping everything at once. i have 15 plants strategically placed around the yard. i feed the comfrey a handfull of 10-10-10 in the spring then fertilize everything else with the comfrey and some compost made with the addition of comfrey throughout the summer. i get all kinds of comments about my comfrey as no one up here has seen it before. they think its a kind of hosta. stuff grows like mad in our cool weather. i have a patch that is completely underwater until mid may. even before the water comes down the leaves are breaking the surface! thats one tough plant! its the only plant that can send a taproot thru my heavy clay soil and thrive with no additional water all summer! stuffs like gren gold for the plants. N-P-K is similar to composted chicken manure. very easy to grow from just a 1in. root cutting.
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I planted it on purpose 
Its Blocking 14 a sterile hybrid of Symphytum x uplandicum. But believe you about its invasive potential. The root I bought was damaged so I divided it and put the damaged part in a pot. The pot was on the ground and when I moved it the roots had grown though the pot into the ground.
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I doubt the comfrey even needs the 10-10-10 that tap root not only digs though hard clay, it metabolizes minerals from the deep soil brining them to the surface.
Very robust plants. I have both the sterile hybrids as well as some I started from seed. BIG Mistake! It appears that with viable pollen even the hybrids can produce viable seed. Before I figured this out it managed to reseed itself in various places around the garden/orchard. It used to be used as fodder for animals, however my chickens must not have read about that because they refuse to eat it. However might be handy if you had cows or the like.
A valuable plant, but stick with the sterile hybrids.
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I cut mine down when it gets about that size pictured in the OP, and it comes right back. I use it for chop and drop mulch, plus I think itās pretty planted next to my borage. I can cut mine all the way back 3x a summer. My sheep like it, as do the cows. I mulch everything with āfertilizedā straw bedding from the lambing barn and the comfrey seems to enjoy that. I donāt know what variety I have as it was gifted to me, but it hasnāt spread other than me dividing it so Iām guessing itās Bocking.
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Great stuuf, I plant it around all my fruit trees. I have Russian hybrid, it has never self seeded.
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probably not but i find when you harvest the leaves often the later crops get smaller and arenāt that dark green. with the fert. the leaves stay drk. green and big right till frost. i give them just a small handful per plant.
Iāve had the bocking varieties and other than growing bigger in the spot i put them, they havenāt spread in 6 yrs, if you dig some roots off the plant the pieces left in the soil that were separated when you took cuttings will all spout! so instead of having a 3ft bush youll have a 6ft bush! i just lay a piece of plywood on the sprouts i donāt want to grow.
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A start from a generous forum member Iāve had in ground for a couple of weeks now. It was sad looking to start but is quickly picking up steam. What an attractive looking plantā¦ I am happy to have it in the garden/orchard/front yard 
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they are attractive and once established are drought hardy. bees love the flowers so when i harvest i leave the flowers stalks.
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I agree that itās a myth that the hybrids are sterile. However, in my location it is rare for both hybrids and pure common comfrey to set seed because the primary pollinators servicing their flowers are bumble bees which puncture the flowers from the side to take nectar without actually pollinating the flowers.
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I cut mine a couple times a year and just toss the leaves around where I will mulch them with the tracter. I usually leave the center mass until near the end end of the year when I just mow over the plant. My most vigorous is the result of growing through a pot as well. It is not where I wanted one, but it is handy to the garden.
Couldnāt say which, but my hybrids donāt produce nearly as many flowers as the traditional ones do.
I set up a compost tea station where I placed a tub of water and a comfrey side by side near where I keep a lot of potted plants. I just add leaves to the water periodically and use the resulting brew to supplement any nearby plants that look like they need a boost.
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I have Russian #14. Does not seem to like our hot summers. Which varieties tolerate heat better, prefer not self seeding all over?
both my bocking #4 and 14 donāt like the heat. they both mildew and brown when it his 80 here. i believe the reg. comfrey does the same. i just chop and drop during that time and once it starts to cool in late summer, it flushes out nice green leaves again. mine got hit with a 25f frost 2 days ago and it looks awesome still. only a covering of snow finally puts it dormant here.
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Iāve had a large area filled with common comfrey for years now after a ditch digging project chopped and spread roots all over. Last year I noticed one out of the many had sported a variegated leaf form. This year it has returned with the same variegation. Itās not super vigorous because of the reduced chlorophyll, so Iāve been pulling the regular comfrey from around it to keep it from getting smothered. Iām interested to see what it will end up doing long term. If itās anything like the variegated āAxmister Goldā comfrey then it wonāt come true from root cuttings, but could still be propagated via rooting flowering stems and taking crown cuttings.
Another clump elsewhere in the patch sent up a single variegated leaf this year, but itās still too early to tell if it will just be that one leaf or if the growing point it came from will continue to be variegated.
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