[Ss6]

Oh one more.. I have a rolling compost barrel (so far its very slow to compost) would it slow things down to add some to this?

[Barred-Rock-or-Brahma]

From the peanut gallery: if your space and physical ability allows, toss the barrel and buy 10′ of 48″ or 60″ wire mesh and do the Berkley Method (18-day Compost). The barrels simply can’t hold enough material to facilitate the necessary heat-generating reactions.

[Ss6]

I’ve been contemplating getting rid of it. I got it free second hand and starting to realize why they were giving it away.. i have yet to harvest from it.

[Barred-Rock-or-Brahma]

I used one for awhile, it was great for breeding flies, but that was about it. The Berkley Method yields a cubic meter of compost in just 18 days! Billy is also working on perfecting the “30 bucket method,” but that’s a project for next year.

[BeckyWecky]

Agreed.

[Lorioffgrid]

I just did this to mulch/ compost a new garden bed. Chopped it somewhat fine maybe two weeks ago. It has become soil. It did not smell except for that wonderful smell that is comfrey. I have seen some people lay entire leaves on the soil surface. I think it degrades pretty quick. I’m hoping to continuously add comfrey all summer long from the 5 large plants I have. If I can keep the deer from devouring it first! It should continually renew itself if cared for.

[Ss6]

Great to know! Thanks

[Ros-C]

I’ve heard that chickens like it (haven’t tried yet).

[Ss6]

I have yet to get chickens. I’m within city limits sadly but trying to grow as much food as possible in our quarter acre lot so want it for compost benefits for my vegs.

[Magnoliahomestead]

I’m also in my first year with comfrey. No flowering yet though. What is the normal time to flowering? I have chopped a few leaves off of the largest plants and put them in the compost pile in the chickens pen. We’re gone the next day.

[lvanderb]

I have a Back to Eden garden and a lot of comfrey. So far this year I’ve not been able to get more wood chips, so I’ve been chopping and dropping comfrey where I need it. If it goes on a planter I cut it up small, otherwise it blows away. I’m using a rice knife to cut every other plant to use for chop and drop. Also using sea buckthorn and elderberry branches for large chop and drop.

I live in a small town, no chickens, but we’re hoping to move out into the country (hubby is allergic, but loves me and I’m home all day) and build another orchard, or rather grocery row gardens à la David the Good and raise Korean natural chickens. We haven’t even found a house and already hubby is getting egg requests.

[Lorioffgrid]

what is a Back to Eden Garden?

[Squashmania]

#1 There are varieties of comfrey that are sterile, and spread only by root cuttings (bokking #14 and 44) and there are varieties spread by seed. 98%of gardeners want the sterile variety. Perma Pastures had a fantastic vlog on how large of a root piece was required to propagate…..only an inch or two, and it will be coming back next season where you planted it. I was surprised the segments were so small. Some people just rototill the comfrey bed when they want it to spread.

#2Plant comfrey where you will WANT it. (It will never leave, because it has an 8-12 ft. tap root.) Kinda like grandpa’s horseradish.

I chop and drop the entire stem and lay it at the base of my rhubarb. The parts I chopped grew back to 3/4 the size of the unchopped stalks in two weeks. So fast! Multiple harvests per season are possible. Fresh leaves degrade quickly without any bad odor. Stalks take longer to break down, but the rhubarb doesn’t mind.

When I put it in water for the ducks, it turns a pretty atrocious color of brown quickly…by the end of the day, but probably makes a lovely plant food tea. I have put it in my anaerobic weed tea fertilizer before (David the Good’s fetid swamp water fertilizer)

Chickens ducks and quail ALL love the leaves and decimate them when put into cages or enclosures. Quail have tiny beaks, so the stalks tend to go in the compost bin. It has a good protein content….I think about 14%, and an excellent supplemental livestock food source.

It can be chopped and hung to dry for feeding in the off-season. I want it so badly to be frost tolerant, but it’s just not in zone 6a/6b.

I have dug up roots from the original plant, and have one plant at each fruit tree in the orchard. I was told that comfrey is a “mineral miner” because its tap root draws nutrients from deep in the soil and is a good companion plant for fruit trees. My orchard has atrocious clay, and I basically made “hugel holes” for my fruit trees. 3′ x 3′ hole with logs in the bottom, twigs, straw/grass and then soil. The comfrey is part of the long game in improving the soil.

[Bullfrog4d]

With comfrey being so valuable as a botanical i don’t think I’d be chopping and dropping but using as compost tea and medicinal salves to sell. This is powerful stuff. It’s called born knit for a reason.