Comfrey Fertiliser

Hello all,

Hope this is an acceptable place to put this query. Skip to the last paragraph to by-pass my rambling back story!

A few years ago we bought a plant and were delighted by the flowers and a little shocked by the rate of growth - it was planted in amongst a nice flower bed.. of which it has now taken over and is spreading into the lawn! But that's by the by, recently we identified this magnificent plant as comfrey, and I was excited to make use of it to feed my vegetable garden.

I decided liquid comfrey tea would be the best way to go, with any leftover leaves going onto the compost heap. I got two buckets, filled them half-way with water and chopped up as many leaves, stalks and used flower heads as I could fit into the buckets. The first batch I only left for just over a week, though it ponged quite enough and was a nice shade of brown. I don't know if a week was long enough though, and I've not noticed any marked difference in the plants I've added the tea to.

But my main query is here: I made another batch and decided to leave it for 4 weeks this time. It's 3 weeks now and I don't know if I can use the tea.. both buckets have a film of mould over the top - one bucket has white mould and the other brown, oddly, but both look like that skin you get on real tea when you leave it too long! Neither bucket had a proper lid, though I covered them both as best I could.

I could, I think, get the mould off the top of the tea if I tried, but is it worth the effort? Is the entire lot contaminated? Will it do more harm than good?

Thank you for any advice you can share,
Panoply

 

Mine is left to brew for at least a couple of months and my final pickings get left brewing over winter. I get scum forming but I just give it a stir or shake, I've never bothered trying to remove it.

 

Good to hear I'm not doing something terribly wrong that's making it go mouldy.