[flowerlady]

And have you read this ??

http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/comfrey/index.php  

... as it has huge roots and brings up all those lovely goodies that have escaped shorter roots ... and as it is 100% natural ... and the bees go nuts for it ... hence greater polination of crops ...

YES it's worth growing   ... I have six plants in a row where an old compost heap was    

... would you like some ??  !!      

[purplebean]

Woohoo according to that link it will grow in shade  

[GrannieAnnie]

One of my comfrey plants grows in the shade of a huge old Poplar tree!!!!   I've had my comfrey for 20 odd years now and what I've got in the garden now is the great grandson of what I started off with in Kent.  I take cuttings whenever I move house!!!

[noshed]

And very good it is too. Kept my toms happy all last year.

[Trillium]

A good friend of mine is on a fairly shady property and she can't get rid of her comfrey, she has so much. I have many young roots from her and am growing them along my treeline as it's the only space I have that's free enough for their rampant behaviour growth. I'd never put my non-hybrid variety near my veggie beds. But John, the site owner, grows the cultivated ones on an end plot (check the photos section). So comfrey will grow pretty much anywhere once established.

[yorky]

Start again.....
 All BASED upon %' ages..."N"itrgen...."P"hosphate"...."K"potassium
Horse Manure------------------0.7-----------0.4----------------0.5
Growmore----------------------7.0-----------7.0----------------7,0
Potato fertliser-----------------7.0-----------5.0----------------12.0
Sulphate of Ammonia---------20.0----------0.0----------------0.0
Super Phosphate-------------- 0.0----------18.5---------------0.0
Fish,Blood &Bone---------------6.0----------6.0----------------6.0
Home Made Compost----------0.5----------0.3----------------0.8

Nutrient, Totals-----------------41.20------37.20-------------26.30
Grand total of above nutrients.....104.70

Now my questions were...
"a"..Is that a balanced diet so to speak?
"b" ..Should I realy be concerned, as to getting it somewhere near balanced?
"c" Have I  missed out, need to add anything? ref: the balance of the nutriments.


I'm only hoping this now prints out as i mean't it to read.
Thanks for your patients     PAH

Sorry Pah, but I am struggling to understand just what the question is. On the face of it, it would seem that you intend to mix all these different fertilisers together. If this is the case, then no, it would not be a balanced feed. It would be top heavy in nitrogen at 41.20 and low in potassium at 26.30. As has already been stated, such a mix would scorch the roots of any plant coming into contact with it. Growmore and fish, blood and bone are both balanced feeds in their own right and do not need mixing with anything else.
I also cannot understand how an NPK value can be put on homemade compost. Surely this will vary from one compost heap to another.
Apologies if I have misunderstood the question.
Brian

[compostqueen]

I think you have  

he was evaluating the merit of each of those in the list in terms of the food benefit to his veggies

Yes it does grown in shade. I keep mine along my privet hedge line where my compo bins are and I regularly bung lumps of it in them

I also have a comfrey pipe where I distil the stuff to make a concentrated liquid feed

[Rampant_Weasel]

although it grows in the shade, does it grow much better in full sun?cos i have 'full sun room' left for some.

[compostqueen]

yeah I bet it goes mad in full sun  

[GrannieAnnie]

It loves sull sun, but we were just saying it will grow in shade too!

I regularly get 3 harvests a year from mine!

[compostqueen]

My russian one is in very deep shade but it doesn't seem to mind. That has huge great leaves. The Bocking ones are well behaved though for the lotty or smaller space. They seem to propagate easily which is a good thing when the plants are regularly being stripped of leaves

[gregmcalister]

The only thing I would say about adding the totals to determine whether it is balanced or not is that it will be inaccurate as it is based on percentages and not weights.  I'm assuming the percentages will be weight for weight so unless you use the same weight of each fertiliser you would need to calculate the individual totals based on the proportion of each fertiliser then calculate your overall total.  It does make things more complicated that just adding the percentages.  I'm sure it is easier than the way I've explained it though!

[PAH48]

Hi...one and all, Yep its me I'm back and still   ing, oh! how the written word can be sqiggledy- wiffed :?: ( yeah I've pinched someones lines there, hope you don't mind, they somehow suited my thoughts at the moment)

I was not advocating mixing the whole she-bang together, i'm not a Chemist, just a Chippy ( not fish and :?:  :?: )

The totals were incidental, in hind sight un-necessary. :? ing

At the time I was pondering the idea of growing comfrey, having read of so many of the forum members doing so and their views, bestowing the vituosities of doing so.

Me being me , :idea: , thinks is it worthwhile giving over a portion of the plot to do so? As I had time on my hands, looked up the nutritional values  (NPK's) of other stuff used in gardeing ect.
If nothing else it would provoke a reasonable learning ( for me at least)
conversation on the forum.     ing, little did I imagine the outcome :!:

At least as a new comer to vedge' gardening I've edificated meself somewhat
I now know H'manure, Growmore and Fish B' & B', are all evenly balanced .
Potato fertiliser high in K pot'. Won't list the rest
So having already dug in piles of H' manue into, what will be my tattie bed this season, when the bed becomes vacant shall I-shan't I add some thing else to the soil as a replacement,  the decission, to be made at a later date, I fink    
 
Compostqueen, you were quite correct, I was trying to evaluate each on its merit,  Thank you
Was the work load, giving up the space worthy of the gain. :?:

But heck what is this forum about, to me bandying about thoughts- ideas -conversations- even takin the mick,( light heartedly and always " in the best possible taste" he sez chucking one leg over the other )  but were all learning one way or other.

Bye 'in PAH

[compostqueen]

So you getting some then or what?    Go on, be a devil  

[PAH48]

......I'''LL  CONSIDER IT :?:    

Bye Compostqueen     PAH...Still   in'