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Originally Posted by MendozaMark
First off , don't shoot the messenger on this one...lol. I am no scientist, don't have a science degree just a gardener who wants to learn.
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No shooting intended.
I do have a science degree, which is why I'm critical... not of you, of 'debunkers' who don't actually pony up any data to support their claims, or misapply scientific concepts/methods to confuse less educated folks. To be fair, I couldn't access the blog because I'm not on facebook and I couldn't find the discussion of comfrey by google. And since Rodale didn't name the researcher I couldn't find the research either. I remain in the dark.
As regards the NPK figures, this type of data on natural materials is never taken as an absolute - they are ballpark figures based upon the available data. This is what we need to estimate how much cottonseed meal or kelp or comfrey to apply as a fert.
From a scientific standpoint "controls" of different plants aren't relevant to this type of data, but the number of data points is important, the more points the better. That means many samples should be tested that grew in different environments, from which an average is taken. It is okay to gripe about someone having only one data point, if that's the case. It isn't sufficient though, to support the claim that comfrey has the same NPK as nettles or hay or some other plant, which according to the available data, are all different.