Making Comfrey Tea

I have a little patch (let's be honest, 2 plants!) of Comfrey in my garden. Over the last few years it has languished in the dry shade of my neighbour's conifer tree. I had hoped that it would spread rapidly, but that hasn't happened. Both plants have remained small. However, now that the tree has been felled, the Comfrey seems to be having a new lease of life, which means I'll be able to harvest it and make a small batch of the plant-food commonly known as Comfrey Tea. [NB: this "tea" is definitely NOT for human consumption!]

A couple of days ago the Comfrey reached the flower-bud stage.

This is the time when the plant is most full of nutrients, and the best time to harvest it.

Initially, I have only cut one of the plants - the biggest of the two. It had four big chunky stems, which I cut down to about 15cm above ground level.

I separated the big leaves from the stems. The leaves are now in this bucket, squashed down and just covered with water.

Over the next month or so the leaves will deliquesce, leaving a brown sludgy (and evil-smelling) mess. This is the so-called Tea. I will add it to the water with which I irrigate my tomato and chilli plants. The piece of clear acrylic over the bucket is intended to keep flies out, and also to prevent the liquid being diluted too much by rainfall (if we ever get any).

Normally I would have put the stems (cut into sections) in the bucket along with the leaves, but on this occasion I kept them back to use as cuttings, with which to increase my stock of plants.

I know from personal experience that a short (15cm-ish) section of stem like this will root very well 9 times out of 10. This is how I established my original 2 plants. You simply dig a hole, shove the piece of stem in it, backfill, water well and hope for the best!

So around the cut-down plant there are now 9 would-be new plants.

I'll repeat this procedure with the second plant in a couple of weeks' time. That way I'll have a supply of the Tea over a longer period. I'm also reasonably confident that the cut-down plant will soon re-sprout and allow me to take a second cut in maybe two months from now. Let's see...

P.S. Rather belatedly I remembered that last time I made Comfrey Tea, I used a couple of these:-

With their close-fitting lids they are ideal receptacles in which to make the tea. Incidentally, if you drill a few drainage holes in them they also make good plant-pots.