comfrey (again)
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter
I've searched the site and can't find an answer to this but apologise in advance if it has already been covered! A fellow allotmenter today told me that comfrey feed looses its goodness after just two weeks. Is this true? I als save a couple of containers through the winter ready to give my sprouting broccoli a feed in late winter but according to this advice am wasting my time! And what about seaweed feed? I make a big bucket of this and keep it in bottles but now fear this may be sterile too! Many thanks. Helen.
Hello Helen
If the solution is kept in containers with the cap on tightly, I can't see how there can be a loss of nutrients.
An interesting question though and I've never seen an authoritative answer to this problem.
John
If the solution is kept in containers with the cap on tightly, I can't see how there can be a loss of nutrients.
An interesting question though and I've never seen an authoritative answer to this problem.
John
I have had now problem in keeping this wonder liquid over winter. I use a couple of home brewing buckets with fitted lids, mine was fine this spring but even better it had no horrid smell.
who needs the gym when you have an allotment
Hi Helen,
Your fellow allotmenteer is totally wrong. I am using Comfrey Concentrate that was made over 5 years ago and it is fine. There is no basis for even considering that it would lose it's goodness.
What you actually have is a bucket of water with a whole host of plant derived Chemicals and Chemicals never lose their identity with time.
Mr Potato Head put Alan Titchmarsh's website on the other day and I find that that refers to Comfrey Tea as a concentrate but it is not. Even on the great ones website they show a picture of the wrong Comfrey. The one to use is one developed by Lawrence Hills founder of HDRA and it is called Bocking 14.
Bocking 4 was the other one put out by Lawrence which is just as nutritious but lacks the mass growth of B14. Both have Blue/Purple flowers and the one on Alan's thread is the lesser growing white flowered variety. The white variety doesn't have the nutrition that the other two have and only makes about a quarter of the plant mass.
Your fellow allotmenteer is totally wrong. I am using Comfrey Concentrate that was made over 5 years ago and it is fine. There is no basis for even considering that it would lose it's goodness.
What you actually have is a bucket of water with a whole host of plant derived Chemicals and Chemicals never lose their identity with time.
Mr Potato Head put Alan Titchmarsh's website on the other day and I find that that refers to Comfrey Tea as a concentrate but it is not. Even on the great ones website they show a picture of the wrong Comfrey. The one to use is one developed by Lawrence Hills founder of HDRA and it is called Bocking 14.
Bocking 4 was the other one put out by Lawrence which is just as nutritious but lacks the mass growth of B14. Both have Blue/Purple flowers and the one on Alan's thread is the lesser growing white flowered variety. The white variety doesn't have the nutrition that the other two have and only makes about a quarter of the plant mass.
JB.
Hi Helen,
I forgot to say that it is best to store, if still in your bucket, out of the frost as the bucket may split if it freezes with dire consequences. I keep my concentrate in 5L milk/oil containers suitably cleansed.
I know this may be splitting the odd hair or two but feel early Spring would be the time to administer feeds rather than Late Winter. In this cold neck of the woods Mid-March would be the earliest however in Sunny Hove I have not got a clue as we have frost up until the first week in June and can be colder in April than it is in February!
I forgot to say that it is best to store, if still in your bucket, out of the frost as the bucket may split if it freezes with dire consequences. I keep my concentrate in 5L milk/oil containers suitably cleansed.
I know this may be splitting the odd hair or two but feel early Spring would be the time to administer feeds rather than Late Winter. In this cold neck of the woods Mid-March would be the earliest however in Sunny Hove I have not got a clue as we have frost up until the first week in June and can be colder in April than it is in February!
JB.