comfrey

[Lavender2]

I cannot say enough that planting Comfrey is an invasive menace.

I have to agree Cat. If I had to choose just one plant I wish I would have never planted, comfrey would win. It has pretty flowers that really attract the bees, and plenty of nice big leaves for the compost. But here it is more invasive than thistle, stinging nettle, and daisies combined. Something? must carry the seed and my conditions must be just right for them. Even a small one has a tap root you will never find the end of.

For years I have diligently pulled the stalks off before flowers set on every plant I could find, but they just keep on coming!

 

[catjac1975]

We dig up a thousand plants every spring and they come back. All from one plant that got away from us. We do feed the leaves to our animals. Any little bit of tissue will turn into a plant.

 

[catjac1975]

I have heard of people making tea out of it. It is considered a cure all. It was banned by the FDA for internal use after someone died of liver failure. (I wonder how many people have died from drugs currently on the market.) We originally bought it for medical uses for the animals. Still regret it.

 

[bills]

My wife has been fighting it for years..lol It's almost as bad as Horse-radish for propagating all over the place..(That's another story about why not to run a roto-tiller in a area horseradish is planted...)

 

[Mackay]

to avoid comfrey from spreading I took some large plastic pots, like you get when you buy a tree. I cut the bottom off leaving a ring about 10 inches deep then I buried it and filled it and planted my comfrey within the ring. So far it hasn't spread, and Im on year 4, but I am going to have to dig it partially up this fall and subdivide it.

 

[britesea]

@Mackay, I did the same thing for my nettles and horseradish and Jerusalem artichokes. But I bought some cheap garbage cans and cut them in half. Drilled drainage holes into the bottom half and use the top half like you do. Either way, I also have some pine rounds from a tree that fell on our roof a few years ago and I put them underneath so the roots don't have a chance to get into the ground. It's possible that they would not be as invasive in my very dry high desert garden, but if the roots managed to reach any overflow moisture from the raised beds that would be a disaster!

 

[lnsoaps]

Can anyone spare a shoot, root or small plant? I lost ours to Hurricane Florence.

 

[catjac1975]

Can anyone spare a shoot, root or small plant? I lost ours to Hurricane Florence.

You want Comfrey?

 

[flowerbug]

You want Comfrey?

might make good TP.

i'm shot on mailing budget this season already so i can only offer to send you some this fall when i start my next season plans. if you can't find some locally or otherwise by then send me a PM to remind me.

 

[flowerbug]

i do have to say that the deer keep eating it here so the patch i've grown has not gotten very far from the initial few plants and so this past year i took it apart and spread it out so the individual plants have more room to spread out. the deer ate it again this winter/spring, but it is now growing surrounded by daffodils so it has a chance of getting some leaves on it again. it is still alive. i give it credit for being a survivor so far. i'm hoping it will keep going as where i've put it is on a slope of clay so it will need to be tough.