Sorrel as comfrey substitute?

[FennelandFern]

A couple of weeks ago on Gardeners' World, Alys was planting her forst garden, and mentioned that you could plant Sorrel as a substitute to comfrey. Does she mean that you can soak the leaves and make tea in the same way?

[FennelandFern]

[saddad]

Dunno, but as it is a dock (Rumex Acetosa) I'm sure the taproot will bring up lots of goodies from the subsoil that will make a good plant food tea...   :-\

[Trevor_D]

Didn't see the programme, but you'd need an awful lot of sorrel to make up an equivalent of comfrey. Sorrel mulches down to a nothing - even in an omelette - while comfrey leaves are sturdy & hairy. A few minutes cutting back and into a bucket; I think you'd be at it for hours with sorrel....

[Robert_Brenchley]

I can fill a barrow to overflowing with comfrey in a few minutes; two barrows fill a barrel, at least while they're fresh. They soon rot down to nothing. I dread to think how long it would take to get that much sorrel!

[FennelandFern]

That's what I thought - and also why would you rot down sorrel when you can eat it? Was a bit confused. Think I'll stick to hacking back my enormous comfrey plants instead!

[PurpleHeather]

Which ever you choose make sure that it is a container. They take over the garden/lottie if you plant them out.

Those plastic recycle boxes with holes punched in the bottom are the perfect size (they can be purchased locally as storage boxes.  I would not consider telling you to use the council boxes then phone up and tell them yours had gone missing and ask for replacments because that would be naughty, even if the council provides them for nowt)

[Eristic]

The very idea of using any plant material as fertilizer should be considered at best as a survival technique best suited to desert island cultivation, and even then it would be a total waste of resources.

The occasional lump of cat shit would give better results.

[calendula]

except that 'green' manures are a fantastic way to enrich soil and heaps better than cat poo  8) my sorrel patch is actually huge and i could easily grab a large bag of it and make a liquid feed with it but would probably prefer to do this with either comfrey or nettles as I like to make sorrel sauce throughout the growing season