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.
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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.
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That variegated comfrey I found last year in my common comfrey patch has been isolated and grown on. Look how nice it’s turning out!
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Are the flowers paler as well?
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My ‘Axminster Gold’ isn’t blooming right now so I can’t compare directly to my new variegated clone, but I think that AG has a more lavender/purple color to the blooms where as this one has little to no lavender showing making it look like a gentle shade of pink. Of course, I’ve had comfrey completely change flower color when moved from one spot to another so I would want to compare them both side by side in multiple soil types before conclusively stating if the flower color will consistently distinguish between the variegated clones.
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It’s been a good year for Comfrey around here. I have them growing in places I forgot I stuck them and flowers all over almost all of them.
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is that bocking or common comfrey?
It’s common comfrey. Symphytum officinale
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i dont know how well it grows in the south but here in the north, its really invasive from reseeding itself. it’s banned in Maine. bocking ones are sterile.
I’m in Washington state and there is very little seedling recruitment from the common comfrey. It has low seed set due to bumble bees biting the sides of the flowers to take nectar which limits pollination. Common comfrey primarily spreads here by root cuttings just like Russian comfrey does. It’s also a myth that Russian comfrey is sterile. While it does have low seed set (probably for the same reason as the common comfrey), it does occasionally set some seed and there are hybrids in existence which have Russian comfrey for one parent.
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sorry. for some reason i thought you’re in V.A. lol! i have bocking 14 for 6 yrs now and so far it has stayed put.
Yes, I’m not surprised it stayed put (even if it did produce seeds). I have a massive patch of common comfrey produced by accident when dirt was moved around. Despite the huge potential for seed production due to volume of fertile plants, I very rarely find anything that looks like a comfrey seedling. I don’t think they establish well from seed unless given some bare soil to germinate on.
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Well, his ‘Pinto’ mutant has continued to produce mottled growth that is pretty stable. Zero leaves have reverted to pure green, but a couple albino leaves have been produced. I did a root cutting test on it last year and it produced a pure albino plant which died. If this continues to hold true after future root cutting tests, then this will be a candidate for those wanting a medium vigor comfrey which will not regenerate from root fragments when the soil is disturbed.
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