Just a shout out for our friend Comfrey

i kept 4 out of 8 clumps and replaced with rhubarb. it looks nice and the good bugs hang out on it . bees like the flowers so its ok in my book but i think it’s highly overrated. i can chop n drop rhubarb as well and get something to eat in the process and it regrows as quick as comfrey. i also have its cousin borage in my food forest. it reseeds itself filling in the bare ground. what i don’t eat of the rhubarb i plan to sell next summer. apparently, someone had some to sell at the farmers market and sold out 50lbs of it in 40 min. out of my 4 patches i get maybe 4xs that amount that mostly rots because i cant use it all.

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Comfrey is just OK in my book. It does well, provides lots of green matter for mulching, but has its downsides too. Never could get my chickens interested in eating it. And I have some sterile Russian hybrids plants, and some non-hybrid. Unfortunately the non-hybrid ones will make viable seeds, even when crossed with the hybrid it seems. So it is somewhat invasive at my place. Not a big problem, but might be in wetter climates. As Michael Philips said, once you plant comfrey you’ll never get rid of it.

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ive gotten rid of it with multiple sprays. sometimes it takes years depending how old it is. older ones have massive rot0s that keep coming back. crossbow works best on them.

I’ve gotten rid of it in some areas by digging out the largest core of roots and then removing surrounding sprouts as they emerge from fragmented roots. Meanwhile I still plant it in new locations. I want it around, just not in spots it isn’t adding value for me.

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My chickens run hot and cold with comfrey. They sashay past it for a month then all of them decide to have a picnic and eat it all day.
My goats love it.

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my chics and goats wont touch it any day. spoiled animals!

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Lol … our goats took a few months to finally try it when we first got them. Spoiled is right. Were always holding out for maple or apple branches.

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mine love any evergreen. spruce, fir, pine etc. i put some mulberry in there and they didnt touch it for a week but finally ate it.

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Mulberry is popular here thankfully i have 2 huge trees. So is forsythia, they go nuts for it. I let a lot of burdock grow bc thats a fave too.