Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[Kassaundra]

Welcome, Linda!

Good to meet you! Ok, y'all...you've got me interested. How expensive is the comfrey seed per pound? Does it work only on tilled land or can you overseed existing lawn?

I don't think Mr. Coe sells seed he sells rootings. I honestly don't remember the price. If you get the bocking variety, (suppose to be better for fodder) the seeds are sterile, it only propagates by root spread. Traditional old fashioned comfrey seeds are hard to find they are considered highly invasive and hard to control, you would only need a seed pkt for 5ish dollars (I think that is how much it was from a Canadian seed company, may find it cheaper on ebay or amazon from individuals selling their own seed) according to all reports it will run away almost like kudzu. I am seriously considering looking for the traditional seeded variety (mr coe sells rootings of that too) and brave the spread, can't be much worse then runner grass, right, and w/ the fierceness my flock attacked the other comfrey I can't imagine it getting to invasive!

 

[Beekissed]

That's a little steep on price, I must admit. I can get clover seed pretty cheap and it goes far. Seems to grow well here as long as I sow some pelleted lime along with it.

 

[LindaB220]

Wow ladies, comfrey is a whole new ballpark. Yes, you can buy plugs for about $1.80 a piece. I bought the larger 1 year plug (4" or so) at $3.50 ea. Ten of them and $11 shipping set me back $46. He did send 7 smaller plugs as a bonus. Way too much for my blood but what can you say. Already bought it. The joy of comfrey is that you better plan on keeping it where you place it FOREVER. It grows fast and if you want to move it, ok. BUT the root stays forever This way you can keep moving it and it will reproduce indefinitely. But if you want to get rid of it in a certain place, I've heard the only way to kill it (literally) is to compost over it. So put it in a place that you want it. I read an old book on it being used as fodder. These guys were planting rows and rows of it and using it in place of grain in winter. They would cut it and hand it to dry like hay. Hundreds of pounds stored. Yes, I paid a bomb for the first set but I'm gonna be digging it up once or twice a year and breaking the roots or cutting them into plugs and planting again. It will make you so much product. I'm totally sold on it.

 

[Aphrael]

I have been on the fence about comfrey, but dang it y'all are making me think I'm gonna have to try some out for my girls. How about ducks? Any experience if they like it?

 

[Lacy Blues]

No experience with ducks but my chickens gobble it down! They really like it! I have 4 plants that I am going to dig up and divide sometime next week when our temperatures get a little higher.

 

[Kassaundra]

Wow ladies, comfrey is a whole new ballpark. Yes, you can buy plugs for about $1.80 a piece. I bought the larger 1 year plug (4" or so) at $3.50 ea. Ten of them and $11 shipping set me back $46. He did send 7 smaller plugs as a bonus. Way too much for my blood but what can you say. Already bought it. The joy of comfrey is that you better plan on keeping it where you place it FOREVER. It grows fast and if you want to move it, ok. BUT the root stays forever This way you can keep moving it and it will reproduce indefinitely. But if you want to get rid of it in a certain place, I've heard the only way to kill it (literally) is to compost over it. So put it in a place that you want it. I read an old book on it being used as fodder. These guys were planting rows and rows of it and using it in place of grain in winter. They would cut it and hand it to dry like hay. Hundreds of pounds stored. Yes, I paid a bomb for the first set but I'm gonna be digging it up once or twice a year and breaking the roots or cutting them into plugs and planting again. It will make you so much product. I'm totally sold on it.

I planted 1/2 of my roots in the chickens area, and 1/2 outside of the chickens area mostly b/c of all the reports that they don't like it fresh that it needs to be wilted. But I no longer have the comfrey in the chickens area, they ate it to the point they killed it out. So I'd say a pretty effective way of killing it out of a location is to turn your chickens into the area!!!! lol

 

[JesNflock]

The people at the elevator here are super nice. I felt sooooo lucky today. I went to check if there was any spillage since the last bucket I got was almost gone and they had just finished filling a trailer and there was a big mound of perfectly good wheat piled on the ground. Needless to say, my daughter and I came home and grabbed every bucket available and a pair of shovels. We filled up 6 five-gallon buckets (all I had) in just minutes. They weigh probably around 35ish pounds each, so I should have plenty to sprout for awhile and be able to spare some for planting in the chicken yard.

Score!

Hey Aphrael, could you use that wheat you get for mealworms? (Do you farm them or have you thought of it?)

 

[Aphrael]

Score!

Hey Aphrael, could you use that wheat you get for mealworms? (Do you farm them or have you thought of it?)

I don't farm them yet, but have been considering it seriously. I have been reading all I can find about starting to farm them for chicken and duck yummies. I don't know about using the wheat for that, I'll have to look into it. Would it need to be ground? I don't have a mill yet (hopefully soon).

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I planted 1/2 of my roots in the chickens area, and 1/2 outside of the chickens area mostly b/c of all the reports that they don't like it fresh that it needs to be wilted.  But I no longer have the comfrey in the chickens area, they ate it to the point they killed it out.  So I'd say a pretty effective way of killing it out of a location is to turn your chickens into the area!!!! lol

That's exactly what I was thinking.

 

[JesNflock]

I don't farm them yet, but have been considering it seriously. I have been reading all I can find about starting to farm them for chicken and duck yummies. I don't know about using the wheat for that, I'll have to look into it. Would it need to be ground? I don't have a mill yet (hopefully soon).

I don't know if it would need to be ground or not...I originally started mine in wheat bran, but I've just begun to experiment with some in oats (My DH has a customer who wants mealworms that haven't been raised in wheat so I thought what the heck I'll give it a try.
The mealworms are SO easy to do. They take hardly any real work and very little start up cost. It takes a little while to get them going, only because you have to wait for them to get to the adult stage to start laying the eggs, but after that happens it doesn't take long to start getting a TON! (I started with only 500 mealworms)


These are just a few of the nice big ones (I currently have 2 containers not including the experimental one)



I have LOTS of adults now...they lay TONS of eggs daily! (This is just a small fraction of them...they love potatoes!)