We garden organically and try to find everything we need from the crops we grow.
Comfrey is a wonderful plant. The plant grows to 1m high and the lovely flowers are usually covered in bees.
It is a perennial and dies down completely in the winter, giving space to clear any weeds that may have been hiding under the foliage.
The best thing about comfrey is that you can easily make a wonderful liquid fertilizer not just for tomatoes but anything else you grow. It is high in potassium and so is brilliant for any thing that fruits or flowers.
The traditional way to make this liquid is to chop up the leaves, stalks etc. into a bucket, push down to get as much as you can in the bucket then cover with water. Place a heavy weight on top to keep the leaves underwater and put it aside somewhere for several weeks until you have a nice dark liquid. One problem with this wet method, it stinks!
I no longer do this but still get litres of the fertilizer by using the dry method.
I made this system from an old pallet, old wide drain pipes, a plant trough, brackets and a plastic tap.
We have 5 tubes as we have a large garden but the same method could be used with a single pipe for smaller gardens.
The chopped up plant materials, stalks, leaves and flowers are pushed down the tubes and then left. After a week or so the tubes will look almost empty so keep topping them up with more comfrey plant. You can cut the plant to the ground several times during the season and if you have several plants there will always be some for the bees.
After about 6 weeks I am now collecting the liquid, 2x 2 litre bottles filled today. No smells!
Then dilute to a weak tea colour and feed the plants
Just continue to add more plant material throughout the growing season and you will get plenty of the fertilizer.
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