How to harvest Comfrey……

[RhysParticipant]

Charles

I bought 20 odd Bocking 14 comfrey cuttings last summer and they’ve emerged beautifully this spring.

I cut about 250 leaves off during the potato planting season to layer with the seed tubers but now the plants have reached about 5ft tall I think it’s time to cut them.

When I had a measly one plant I just cut things back to ground level and let it grow again, but now I have enough to do some real things with, I was wondering whether there is a guidance as to the best way to cut back to ensure optimal future growth?

Right down to ground level?
To about 25cm?
Leave the main stem but just cut off all the side stems and leaves??

AS I now have the chance to make teas, activate compost piles and put in with runner beans etc etc, it’d be useful to know. I don’t seem to remember Lawrence Hills’ book actually describing how he harvested his plants, merely that he got 5 harvests a seasons and up to 100 tons per hectare!!

Any advice/experiences appreciated…

Cheers

Rhys

[charlesModerator]

I cut to just above ground level but have ot tried other ways, why don’t you compare different levels of cut?

That is exciting to have so much!

[Pete BuddParticipant]

I`ve had a decent size comfrey patch for years and like Charles cut just above ground level, (I don`t think it matters). I usually do 2 cuts per year, I feel any more is a bit too much for optimum production. Output from my first comfrey patch started to drop off after about 15 years so I had to move it, (I suppose that is to be expected). However; all it takes to re-establish a flourishing patch is to dig up some healthy sections of root and replant, (I like to see signs of fresh shoots on the transplants). Most of my crop is composted and the black liquid percolates down into the rest of the contents of the bin. Some leaves are used to produce liquid feed.

Cheers

Pete

[RhysParticipant]

Great.

I”ll go ahead and have a go with a few different cut heights then.

[zufParticipant]

I found a great way today, i think… cutting at base, yes, but ONLY bigger stems, just the same as with salad, bigger leaves only. I took many big stems along with leaves and flowers. I left enough young stems 20-40cm high, which can now grow a lot faster… ?

[RhysParticipant]

We’ll compare re-growth rates. Still another six to cut so I can try some things out to see what happens.

[Don FoleyParticipant]

Hi Rhys,

I realise this reply is very late but here goes anyway.
I have 8 Bocking 14 plants which I propagated from a crown cutting I was given from a Victorian Kitchen Garden in Dublin.
The Gardeners there gave me the following advise at the time:
Take first cutting in April when the plants are about 2′ high, cutting at 2″ above soil level.
Take subsequent cuts again when the plants again reach 2′ high. Take no further cuts after September allowing remaining foliage at that time to die back and return the nutrients in those leaves to the roots.
Cover the beds with manure/garden compost in January and mulch during the growing season with grass clippings.
They also advised removing flower stalks immediately to ensure maximum leaf production.
In following this simple advise I get 4-5 cuts from each plant during the growing season.

Don.

[RhysParticipant]

Don

Thanks for the comments – much appreciated.

I had a whole season harvesting and wasn’t that far away from your advice to be honest. I stopped cutting at the end of September and now after the frosts over Christmas/New Year, all the plants have died back and just leave a brown gooey mass.

The first season of making compost adding comfrey leaves into the bin went very, very well – yes it was a warm dry summer, but the speed of composting of the first bins completed in May was amazing – turning them at the end of July showed them well advanced and they went into the green waterproof bins for the winter in perfect shape. I couldn’t be happier. Whether it was just the comfrey, the added yarrow or just that conditions were good for composting I don’t know.

The potatoes which were hilled up with a mixture of comfrey leaves, grass clippings and a bit of soil did really great too – up to 4lb per tuber maincrop using Desiree. That’s definitely worth doing again this year.

Let’s hope 2015 is as good for the comfrey crop.

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