Subject: Comfrey

From: [email-masked] (Bob Gifford)
Date: 21 Mar 1995 21:49:44 GMT

I think it's comfrey.

The plant has dark green veltety leaves which come from the ground rather 
than a stalk.  It has a large woody root which will grow a new plant if
broken into any size.  I've seen it up to a foot tall and a two foot wide
clump with leaves 4inches wide.  It comes up early in the spring and is 
invading our community garden.

Is it definately comfrey?

The garden was plowed last fall and will be disked again this spring.  There
will be only a few days to work at this project after the disking but before
the community gardens open and plots become "private property".  The roots 
will be scattered after the disking, mostly buried.  In the fall, there will
be a time of a few weeks after the first frost when the gardens are closed
and workable before they are plowed again.  It should be possible to spray
with field machinery at that time.  This portion of the gardens is NOT 
reserved for organic gardening.

A hand-work party is a possibility.

We will try not to assign the plots which are most infested.  This means that
summer solutions will be possible on these plots.  

The infested plots are on the most downhill section of the garden.  Runoff
is directly into a 1/4 mile grassy depression which carries water only in 
heavy rains.

What should our community garden do to eradicate comfrey?

Bob Gifford
Madison, WI
[email-masked]