Kitchen Garden Forum

How far to you cut it down and what proportion of the plant? Do you just leave the stems with flowers and cut out those which have finished or maybe cut it all down every now and then? And how often?

Advice welcome!

Dear Colin, i cut the whole lot off to about six inches from the ground, i do this about a week after the flowers open, but that is for no specific reason.

I try and get about four or five cuts a year.
Comfrey is pretty resiliant stuff so theres not much chance of harming it however you go about the job.

Colin, I do the same as OH and have had three cuts so far this year. The plants seem to recover very quickly and throw up new shoots. I don't use them for an evil-smelling brew, though, but just put them on the compost heap for extra oomph.

I do the same as OH and it bounces right back

Compo

Many thanks for all your replies. Pretty unanimous too.

Yes, I try to get 3 or 4 cuts a year and I've just done my second cut. I do make the evil-smelling brew, but I also use it as a compost accelerator and as a mulch for tomatoes and squashes. It rots down very quickly, though, so i place it underneath the existing mulch.

mike

Hi Colin,
I cut mine down to 4" and get 5 cuts per year.
I use some for mulching the Tomatoes in the greenhouse and the tunnels. The rest goes to make Comfrey concentrate which is not a foul smelling concoction and is very easily used. The thing with concentrate is that it can be stored and be ready for use the moment you want it. Any surplus goes on to the compost heap like Monika does.
In my retirements, which will come this autumn, I have decided to grow several other plants to find out if I can make concentrates. Namely Nettles, Yarrow and Pot Marigolds.
I do not use Comfrey mulch on outdoor Tomatoes because it is a total waste and dries out and ends up in the hedge and has done the tomatoes no good whatsoever. The outdoor Toms are fed with Comfrey concentrate on a reduced strength every watering.
JB.

I only use mine as a compost activator and cut some whenever I have a lot of grass mowings to mix it with. I just cut it if there is some ready, never counted the cuts but must be 4 or 5.
I am thinking of moving it. It occupies a fairly sunny bed and I have a slightly smaller more shady bed nearer the compost bins. I reckon it won't mind the shade, the veg will benefit from the extra sun and I'll have a slightly bigger growing area. The question is, what state will the old bed be in? I guess nutrients will have been depleted in the well over 10 years the comfrey has been there but the roots should have done a lot of good. Would you kill it off with glyphosate when I have moved what I need? I have a friend who moves it through his plot regularly as a break crop, is this a better way to grow it?

You'll find that it has a huge root system, Geoff. We have tried to get rid of some comfrey in a place where it we no longer wanted it and keeps appearing again and again, a bit like horse radish!

That's what I was afraid of, does anybody know if chemical warfare helps?

Hi Geoff,
I can tell you that Lawrence D Hills used Ammonium Sulphamate (now with the trade name of Root Out) when he had finished experimenting with a particular strain which was not selected. The only thing is that they had not been established for many years as your appear to be. I should be prepared for many new plants appearing because although you will transfer as much of the root as you can, every severed root left in the ground is likely to send up a shoot.
I would be inclined to take root cuttings of what is there now and forgo the last picking this year and kill the main plant. I was forced to kill off an acre a few years ago because the LA was told what I was doing and I needed a licence which ran into a couple of thousand squid a year. I used Glyphosate but it needed more than one season to get rid of it.
JB.