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7 Best Uses for Comfrey Vigorous comfrey plants regrow after greens are harvested for compost or mulch. Garlic is tucked in with a double mulch of chopped comfrey and rotted hay. A comfrey root poultice can speed healing of sprains and bruises. Use dried leaves to make comfrey tea for houseplants.
What can comfrey be used for?
Comfrey is an herbal supplement used for conditions such as bronchitis, bruises (topical use), cancer, cough (persistent), fractures (topical use), peptic ulcer, rheumatism, skin ulcers (topical use), sprains (topical use), wound healing (topical use), gastritis, ulcers, excessive menstrual flow, and to gargle for gum.
Can you eat comfrey?
Historically, some people have eaten comfrey leaves as a vegetable. You can also drink dried comfrey root and leaves as tea. Today, eating or taking any form of comfrey by mouth isn’t recommended. It’s considered unsafe, due to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids that comfrey contains.
What part of comfrey is edible?
It isn’t eaten a lot, as it has a slightly hairy, rough texture as the leaves age, but the young leaves and buds are very tender and delicious in recipes such as Comfrey Leaf Lemonade Fritters. The leaves are used a lot as a herbal tea.
How do you use comfrey in the garden?
Use as a mulch. Chop up comfrey leaves with grass cuttings, and place a 5cm layer on the surface of the soil around all plants. This will slowly rot down to provide nutrients, and act as a mulch to keep in moisture and help control weeds. Add fresh cut leaves to your leaf mould heap.
Is comfrey good for compost?
Comfrey out-performs manure, compost and many liquid feeds for concentration of nutrients. It produces these from a deep root system extending right into the subsoil that most edible plants cannot access. It also has an ideal Carbon:Nitrogen ratio which means that it does not hamper absorption of nitrogen by plants.
Can I drink comfrey tea?
While you can make comfrey tea at home, health experts do not advise that you drink the tea. 2 For that reason, some fans of the herbal treatment make comfrey tea, allow it to cool, and apply it topically to the skin or to areas of the body where aches and pains are present.
How do you cook with comfrey?
Comfrey can be prepared as a starter (they make quite good fritters), soup, or as a side dish. (My mom makes a delicious comfrey marog -a traditional African side dish made with leafy greens, onions and tomatoes.) You can also add it to other veggies and to stews. It also makes a nutritious addition to veggie juices.
Is comfrey toxic to dogs?
But be warned, dogs should not eat or lick it, as it can be toxic to them and will cause gastrointestinal problems if ingested in large amounts. Although comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, primarily on the root, which cause liver problems when ingested in large quantities.
What does comfrey taste like?
Comfrey has a pleasant but mild cucumber-like taste, much like borage. Young comfrey leaves are quite good to eat. They’re slightly hairy and have a mucilaginous texture. Older leaves are covered with a lot of coarse hairs and taste very bitter.
Why does comfrey stink?
Some comfrey tea recipes will tell you to add water at this stage, but that method will result in an almighty stink as the plethora of bacteria and microorganisms in the water get to work on digesting the comfrey and fart out all sorts of waste gases.
How do you harvest comfrey?
Harvesting the plant is very simple and easy to do. You will need to start by cutting the leaves back to about 2 inches above the soil. You can also take individual leaves as they get to about the size of your hand. After the first cut, you can count on another cutting every 6 weeks until early autumn.
How long do you leave a comfrey poultice on?
Leave the compress on affected area anywhere from four to six hours. Refresh with fresh comfrey as needed.
Is comfrey good for potatoes?
On potatoes Comfrey has an almost perfect ratio of nitrogen, potash and phosphorous. In comparison with farmyard manure, Hills shows it has more nitrogen, twice as much potash, but less phosphorous. It is an ideal potato and tomato food.
Is comfrey good for tomatoes?
Comfrey has very deep roots, which means it extracts large quantities of nutrients from far below the soil’s surface, inaccessible to other plants. It’s especially rich in potassium, making it the ideal feed to promote flowers and fruits in a range of plants, including tomatoes.
What can you do with comfrey root?
Comfrey roots and leaves contain allantoin, a substance that helps new skin cells grow, along with other substances that reduce inflammation and keep skin healthy. Comfrey ointments have been used to heal bruises as well as pulled muscles and ligaments, fractures, sprains, strains, and osteoarthritis.
Is comfrey a good mulch?
As Mulch. Freshly cut Comfrey leaves make good mulch because they have high nitrogen content, and don’t pull nitrogen from the soil while decomposing. Comfrey’s high potassium content makes it especially beneficial for vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, berries, and fruit trees.
How do you mulch with comfrey?
Grow Your Own Fertilizer Using Comfrey Mulch: Leaves can be cut and left to wilt for a couple of days before piling them around hungry plants such as potatoes and tomatoes as a thick mulch. Dig in: Wilted leaves can be dug into ground that is being prepared for a new crop and will break down to give an excellent feed.
Is comfrey good for roses?
Roses are tough, resilient things. Now is not the time to renovate roses by pruning – that’s a winter job. The quickest route to good health at this time of year is liquid feed. Choose organic for the planet or make your own by rotting down either comfrey and nettles or, if you can get hold of it, manure.
