Growing comfrey is easy. Plant either a comfrey crown (a large piece of the core root ball – see below) or pieces of root cuttings and they will grow into a new plant.
Benefits of Comfrey in the Garden
Ideas to use comfrey:
- Comfrey is a great pollinator. The purple flowers attract insects which may help improve the pollination of apples and vegetables.
- Improves soil health. Comfrey pulls up nutrients from deeper in the soil. This is especially important for my soil, where comfrey can improve the availability of potassium and phosphorus.
- Chop and drop: I chop and drop the leaves for mulch and feeding the plants and trees.
- Nutrient-rich fertilizer: I put cut comfrey leaves in a bucket of water and let it sit for a few weeks. I then strain and use the liquid as fertilizer.
- Turbo charge a compost pile by adding comfrey. Having horses and chickens, I have plenty of added manure (nitrogen). Including comfrey in the compost pile can add phosphorus and potassium, which may offset the nitrogen in the manure.
- Use comfrey as a companion plant in a fruit tree guild. Almost all of my apple and chestnut guilds include comfrey. This seems to really excel at the base of chestnut trees.
- Note: Do not plant too close to grafted apple trees if your area is prone to having periods of extreme drought. The comfrey can pull too much moisture and nitrogen and outcompete the apple tree. Better to plant farther away and chop and drop the leaves around the base of the apple tree.
- Comfrey can also be used to augment animal feed.
- Bocking Russian comfrey is sterile, so it won’t overgrow your garden like mint has a tendency to do.
GotComfrey?
We have comfrey crowns and root cuttings at GrowNutTrees.com.
Planting Instructions:
- Plant a comfrey crown or piece of a root cutting. You can even divide the comfrey crown into two plantings.
- Place around the base of trees in fruit trees guilds.
- Plant in beds.
Warning – it is really hard to get rid of comfrey after you plant it, so make sure that you plan accordingly. I have a nearly endless supply of comfrey because even if I dig up a root crown there are usually enough roots left in the soil where the plant will come back in the coming year.
