Organic Comfrey – A magical plant for the garden

Comfrey is a great plant for organic gardens. Henry Doubleday, the pioneering organic gardener first imported Russian comfrey and following on from his research, Lawrence D Hills, head of the Henry Doubleday Research Association developed the famous Bocking 14 variety. Incidentally Hills was a ceoliac like me and spent a large part of his life in a wheel chair, he was diagnosed by a nutritionist friend Hilda Cherry Hills, who he later married after he had thrown away his wheel chair. the Henry Doubleday Research Association Hills created is still in existence today, now renamed Garden Organic.

Comfrey is a very deep rooted pereneal herb with large hairy leaves. It likes cold and wet soil. Here in the Corbieres it is best grown in the shade, I have the mother plants in tubs to make it easier to lift them, but I have also planted some in the ground around our septic tank. They love it there.

Comfrey is what, in organic circles, is called a dynamic accumulator, it’s deep roots mine nutrients and minerals from the soil, by harvesting it’s leaves these minerals become available to treat other hungry plants. Does this have a basis in science? Wellk yes partially. Scientists have identified what they call hyperacculamators, that is plants with tap roots that absorb high levels of certain types of minerals. It is this characteristic of comfrey that is sought after by organic gardeners.

It is also this characteristic that lead to the banning of comfrey based ingredients for oral medicines in a number of countries over worries that they could cause liver poisoning and possibly be lethal.

Comfrey does however contain a number of beneficial medicinal properties when used as a cream in limited amounts on unbroken skin. The scientific evidence can be read here Comfrey root: from tradition to modern clinical trials

Growing organic comfrey

As already written comfry likes cold and wet, a deep soil base is also essential, although comfrey roots will find a way through most things. When you plant them space them out at least 60 cms apart, even up to a meter. It is a nitrogen hungry plant, so lots of compost and manure mulch, even grass cuttings work. These rich mulches need to be applied every year.

An organic olive tree grower I know plants comfrey beneath his olive trees to open the oil and fix potassium in the soil. The olive trees have a drip by drip watering system to maximize the harvest, so he has branched that to provide water for the comfrey. Foe further research on this see the PolyCulture Project link below.

Comfrey is also useful as a preparation plant to improve a bed before planting vegetables in the following years.

Propagating organic comfrey

The best two ways of propagating comfrey is by division or root cuttings. To divide simply take a sharp spade and cut the crowns of a mature plant in two, dig up one half and plant apart, fill up the hole with a soil an manure mix and both plants will be back to full strength in 12 months.

Harvesting Organic Comfrey

Comfrey can be harvested up to five times a year. Once the roots are established, and it is regularly watered I find comfrey basically in destructible. It can be cut hard back and within days it will be back again, Every time I cut it back I apply a nitrogen rich mulch of some description to renew the health of the soil. In theory comfrey should be harvested before it flowers to get the most out of the leaves. I rarely do this because the bees in my garden love the flowers and I love the bees. I find the lose in minerals minimal and the pleasure of the bees is worth it.

Making an Organic Comfrey plant feed

This video is pretty good.

As well as a fertilizing tea comfrey can be used as a nutritious mulch and also as a root support by placing comfrey leaves at the bottom of the hole into which you intend to place a plant. The leaves break down quickly and give the young roots a helpful boost.

Further Reading and Research on Organic Comfrey

The PolyCulture Project has been running a  series of research rials on comfrey, you can read their findings here, particularly interesting is there soil analysis over a three year period https://www.thepolycultureproject.com/comfrey-trials.html