finally got me some comfry.

Went to my Mom and Dads today for a visit and asked my Dad if I can take some of his comfrey plant. Got the shovel out and dug up a good sized root ball. Took it home and planted it up on the rock wall away from any garden areas. Is there one type of comfrey that is better then others? Any guess from the picture what type I have?

Dug up a few dandelions from the yard. Gonna dry out the roots and make some roasted dandelion root tea. I keep buying the stuff and then looking at all the dandelions in the yard. Has anyone ever had experience in doing this? The best time to harvest the roots is September to October because that's when the plant stores up for the winter. I'm gonna dry the leaves out and if my plants need a quick boost of potassium I will make a tea out of them. Dried dandelion leaves have about 4% potassium in them.

Great DIY, let us know how it works.
We may all be outside plucking dandelion !
Bless,
DZ

I have made dandelion root coffee (we don't call it tea here in England because we're tea fascists ) Tasted like a decent instant coffee (I know "decent" and "instant coffee" is a contradiction ) so worth doing imo. And anyway; "Try everything once"...well most things...
Just started adding dandelion leaves to the wormery...though I did not know my ladies would like some root tea, so cheers for the heads up.
I know I have "Russian Block 14" comfrey growing, seems to be what most people have going...best in a pot as it can spread like buggery apparently....

kkt3 said:

Any guess from the picture what type I have?.

Click to expand...

The surest way to tell would be to ask your Dad if the plant produces seed after flowering, if it doesn't, it's the Bocking 14 Russian comfrey.

If the leaves stay narrow like they are now it's Symphytum officinale or 'Common Comfrey' . If the leaves fill out and the plants grows really quickly and produces seed it's some form of Symphytum × uplandicum or 'Russian Comfrey'. If the leaves fill out and the plants grows really quickly and doesn't produce seed, it's 'Bocking 14 Russian Comfrey'

sworth said:

I know I have "Russian Block 14" comfrey growing, seems to be what most people have going...best in a pot as it can spread like buggery apparently....

Click to expand...

It can spread and be a right pain it the arse, but you're not getting the full benefits of the plant if you grow it in a pot. The reason these kind of plants are good is because their roots go deep, dragging nutrients and minerals up from the subsoil and bed rock.

Growing comfrey or any other plant in a pot to use as a soil additive or nutrient supply is adding a whole process to the nutrient supply chain.

You're putting soil/compost and nutrients in a pot to grow comfrey, which you are going to use to put in compost or soil. The comfrey is only going to contain the nutrient content of the original soil/compost and nutrients you put into the original pot, plus some nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Hope that makes some sense, made some canna/coconut oil last night and it's stronger than I was expecting, I'm almost trippin lol

Yeah man, I got that. Trouble is I only have room for pots...I even have to grow a few potatoes in pots

I have a keen eye out for a patch in an empty house or somesuch...until then it's the best I can do. It goes against my tight arse grow guidelines to buy some comfrey pellets
(Edit)
Had a look around for some dandelion information, here's the best I've found so far...http://achoum.com/dandelions-free-firtilizer/
Looks like harvesting wild dandelion would be the thing for me to do in my situation, it grows everywhere here