How to make comfrey tea
NB: This is not a tea for you to drink! It is a liquid fertiliser for your garden, to be applied to plants or the soil.
If you don’t have enough comfrey, patience, or time to make concentrated comfrey liquid, this “comfrey tea” is a viable alternative.
The main downside is the smell – we don’t recommend locating your comfrey tea container close to your house or sitootery.
Method
You’ll need:
- A plastic barrel, water butt or similar container with a capacity of at least 20 litres, and a neck wide enough to let you put your cut comfrey in. It will need a lid or other covering, and possibly a drainage tap depending on its size. We use plastic blue barrels/drums, often freely or at least cheaply available in most locations. These are robust enough to not be affected by the weather and will last for many years.
- Containers for the finished feed – we use old milk cartons, orange juice bottles, etc.
- Cut comfrey – see our harvesting guide.
- Water.
- A little patience.
The method is simple:
- Harvest your comfrey, and weight it (or estimate its weight).
- Put the cut comfrey into the barrel – not more than 1kg of comfrey per 2 litres of barrel capacity.
- Add water – approximately 2 litres per 1kg of comfrey. Cover securely.
- Wait 4-6 weeks depending on the time of year and weather – in warm, sunny weather 4 weeks will be plenty, in cooler, cloudy conditions it may take longer than 6 weeks.
Using comfrey tea
This method produces a comfrey liquid feed that can be used undiluted on tomatoes and other nitrogen-hungry plants, or diluted up to 1:2 for use as a general plant food or foliar feed.
If your container has a tap you can draw off liquid as its needed. If it doesn’t have a tap,good luck!
Do not over-use – the nitrogen in this feed is in a highly available form readily lost by leaching.