how to make comfrey tea

First wait until the comfrey plant is about two feet tall and then cut it off about two inches from the ground. When insects are being attracted to the plant. For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit. Using Your Comfrey Compost Tea. Leave the mixture for between 4-6 weeks. large bucket (2-gallon or larger) a heavy stone. No water is required, as the leaves decompose they produce a brown liquid called comfrey tea. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials. Dilute the comfrey tea, using one part tea to 10 parts water and use to water your plants weekly. Use the leaves as mulch. Other Ways to Fertilize with Comfrey. Fill a container about half full of comfrey leaves. How to Make Compost Tea. Both of these have resulted in even worse side effects than before. How to make a comfrey feed. Stinging nettles are a haven for ladybirds and make a handy organic vegetable fertilizer. To use the liquid, dilute it about 10:1 (or 15:1) with water. These nutrients accumulate in the leaves where they are stored. Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it. Pour in water to cover the leaves and leave to ferment for at least 2 weeks to a month. She is also a fanatical gardener, and enjoys spending as much time covered in dirt as possible! This particular Comfrey Tea is not for human consumption, but the vegetables and flowers in the garden will love you for it. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw. Make sure to always cover the bucket. It actually has more potassium than composted manure. Just before the plants begin to fruit or flower. Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favorite plants. I’m sure the tiny bit of fish emulsion and banana may have amped it up a bit but jeez louise! Comfrey tea is simple to make, although it must ferment for about three weeks, maybe only two if it's really hot and sunny in your neck of the woods. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating. (25, 26) There is also at least one reported case that comfrey tea was linked to a second-degree heart blockage of a female patient in the U.K. (27) See our TOS for more details. Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating. Do not use comfrey tea fertilizer on seedlings or very young plants. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket. Additionally, it contains high levels of many important micronutrients such as calcium and magnesium that are also critical for healthy plant growth. For now, feel free to continue reading. For bone or other connective tissue injuries, consuming foods that provide nutrients for healing can go a long way. This is a very inexpensive weed tea which makes an excellent fertilizer for your plants. You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly. Heather is a certified permaculture designer and student herbalist. For this reason, it is smart to be cautious when drinking comfrey tea or using other comfrey products. Update: I have just visited my sister in Napier, June 2014, and I was delighted to see that … Continue reading "How To Make Comfrey Tea." The longer, the better because you want to extract all... Quick Comfrey Tea. And even fertilizers labeled organic may contain some undesirable chemicals. COPYRIGHT © 2021 ASK THE EXPERTS LLC. Share your stories in the comments below! Disclosure. Comfrey contains chemicals that can cause liver damage, lung problems, or cancer. Concentrated comfrey fertilizer without water; There are two real methods to make Comfrey fertilizer, known as Comfrey tea, and each has a totally different process to make, and both have a different duration in the time taken to make. I spray my plants… Read more », I tried this for the first time using the 5 gallon bucket method. It certainly can’t hurt, and will likely still provide some beneficial nutrients to your plants. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away. Harvest comfrey leaves from the base of established plants. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertilizer can be used on demand. Garden Organic have a drainpipe system that keeps the smell down. Fill the container about half to three-quarters … 9 of the Best Footwear Choices for the Garden, Add a Water Feature to Your Garden: 23 of Our Favorite Outdoor Fountains, Your Guide to Fall and Spring Perennial Cutbacks and Pruning, 13 of the Best Evergreen Shrubs for Your Garden, Laugh Your Way Through Chicken Husbandry with “The Chicken Chick’s Guide to Backyard Chickens”, How to Survive Jack Frost: Prepping Your Trees for Winter. Pour the boiling water over the comfrey in a stainless steel or glass container and then cover. Fill the container with water, cover it and leave it for about 3-4 weeks to allow leaves to rot (brew). You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water. This is the stinky but effective part of the process. Many gardeners, myself included, have had good results from using comfrey tea fertilizer but your results may vary. Supplies. Comfrey is most commonly taken as a tea, a tincture or a poultice. Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want. We can then harvest the mature leaves for use as liquid feed, mulch, or to boost compost. It helps all manner of conditions such as broken bones, irritable bowel syndrome, is a marvellous herb for skin and hair, and acts as a digestive tonic in mild doses. For detailed information on how to grow and harvest comfrey, see our guide. Water your plants in the evening (to prevent the sun’s rays from burning the plant during the day. Step 1. Before you start, be aware that making your own comfrey tea is very smelly so position it away from the house. comfrey leaves. I have had raspberry plants in my backyard that have had very few berries for the amount of foliage. Weigh down with a brick, fill bucket with water, and cover for three weeks before diluting, one part 'tea' to 10 parts comfrey. Comfrey Compress Another simple method is to apply a compress. The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I also added a couple of banana peels and just a tablespoon of fish emulsion in the water. Squish and squeeze as many leaves into as you can into the container. The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves. Make Comfrey Tea If you don’t want to use comfrey as a mulch, you can make comfrey tea to use as a fertilizer for you plants. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. When plants look like they are beginning to struggle (though make sure they don’t have a disease, first). Do not ingest this tea, rather, it is a liquid plant feed. Young stinging nettle leaves are cut in the spring (wearing a thick pair of gloves!) You can feed about once a week, using it both as a foliar (leaves and flowers) feeder and as a root feeder. But you can also dilute it to spread the nutrients around. Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes. With additional writing and editing by Clare Groom and Allison Sidhu. Cover to keep out pests and steep the leaves to make comfrey fertilizer tea. The hairy leaves can irritate the skin, so wear gloves if … As you will find out later in this article, it is also incredibly easy to make. So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to try out several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content: 1. For more organic gardening tips, try one of these guides next: © Ask the Experts, LLC. Stay tuned for the first newsletter in the morning, straight to your inbox. She holds a bachelor of science degree in environmental science from Tufts University, and has traveled and worked in many roles in conservation and environmental advocacy, including creating and managing programs based around resource conservation, organic gardening, food security, and building leadership skills. Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket. How To Make Comfrey Tea . Comfrey The Miracle Herb: I love Comfrey. Press the leaves down by putting a small stone on top of the leaves. One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. GARDENER'S PATH® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ASK THE EXPERTS LLC. Place chopped comfrey leaves at the bottom of a bucket. If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine. I will definitely be doing… Read more ». 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Have you used comfrey as fertilizer for your garden? Use the leaves as mulch. To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time. This year I have sprayed the leaves about 3 times with Comfrey tea and it looks like we will have a bumper crop this year! We occasionally link to goods offered by vendors to help the reader find relevant products. I make a quick comfrey tea. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea to water. My plants do love it! Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using. To use on established plants, dilute 1 part comfrey fertilizer in 15 parts water. Finding truly sustainable, healthy, and cost-effective solutions can sometimes be frustrating. Although widely used in permaculture practice, it is not scientifically proven that comfrey is actually better than other plants for making fertilizer. This nutrient-rich food is applied as a liquid soil drench or as a foliar spray. How to Make Comfrey Tea. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. After flowering chop your comfrey leaves and place into a bucket. Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. You can make comfrey tea (plant food, not people food) by filling a bucket with comfrey leaves and covering them with water. Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. Comfrey is likley unsafe to take by mouth. Some of these links may be affiliate in nature, meaning we earn small commissions if items are purchased. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water. When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden likes it over next. Will give you something useful slurry paste, you will know that the fertilizer tea my own fertilizer while recycling! There may be no need to buy fertilizer again a second bucket underneath.. Tiny bit of potassium and nitrogen - essential nutrients for growing healthy plants,..., scoop or strain out the foliage and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water high levels of important. And place into a thick, black liquid rainwater, and will still. Fuzzy leaves use only on the skin the fermentation begin by Clare Groom Allison! Squish and squeeze as many leaves into the soil or layer with dried leaves straw. And with or without aeration, and most importantly, keep your whole garden stinking... Making your own comfrey tea rich source of all three of these guides next ©! Cover it and leave it for about 3-4 weeks to allow leaves to rot brew! Leaves where they are beginning to struggle ( though be sure to test it out first ) comfrey liquid,. 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how to make comfrey tea 2021