Three sisters

[lottielady]

I have been to my lottie today and my neightbour has planted a three sister arrangement this summer with squash, sweetcorn and climbing beans. I am really keen to try this next season and would like a head start with having an idea of which varieties work best or are recommended.

Any ideas would be helpful and gratefully received
Many thanks

[terrier]

Hi Lottielady, I tried this last year,well, two sisters really, I planted sweetcorn and courgettes. Although my sweetcorn plants seemed to grow well, there were no corns formed on the cobs. It was suggested by some of the grapes that it was a problem with shortage of water. So beware if you're growing thirsty plants in the same patch of ground, make sure you can give them enough water for each set of plants.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I wanted to try this, until I realised (ok, the grapes told me!) that it's really difficult to harvest the corn 'as you go' as the beans grab on so tight, so the cobs have to be harvested to dry.

Don't mean to put a downer on it tho'!

[rustylady]

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Never got as far as the three, but growing sweetcorn with squash between this year, will let you know how it goes.

[Sue]

I'm trying this too, well with peas (Balmoral) instead of beans, as I'd run out of bean plants by the time I got the sweetcorn planted. I now have a bed that looks really funny in among all the others, everything else is quite tidy and normal looking and then there is the three sisters bed and hey, let it all hang out! The squash are making a bid for world domination, the sweetcorn is getting very large and the peas are hanging on for grim death.
I think I should have had them in a bigger space... well try again next year when I've got some more ground dug over. But it's fun trying anyway and I might get some sweetcorn and a few peas and definately squash.
Sue

[JennieAtkinson]

I;m doing this but with dwarf runner beans (all I had left to plant!) So far the squash have taken up most of the room though.

[Flummery]

I've got some dwarf french beans in among the corn - both doing well as the birth announcements say - but the squash plants (well, one squash, one pumpkin) are at the back of the bed so if they prove too thuggish I can train them out of the way (with a whip and a chair, no doubt!) So mine are more like 3 good friends.

[shirlthegirl43]

I was going to try this until it was commented that everything needs to be left to dry before harvesting (except the squash I think). I have blue sweetcorn growing in a bed though and now have two blue patty pan seedlings getting ready to be planted at the base of them. Decided to plant the purple podded mangetout elsewhere so that I can still harvest the corn if it every suns enough for it to flower and grow properly

[Seahorse]

I have tried this on a very small scale this year - 5 corn, 5 beans and one squash in a huge container. I don't know enough to advise on varieties but my biggest mistake was planting the beans too soon, so they overtook the corn and needed staking. The corn is doing well, the squash is ok but the beans are rather spindly and pale. I've been feeding them but I suspect it's all just been washed away in the rain.

Claire

[chrissie the chippy]

Is Blue sweetcorn really that? Blue? I've never seen it anywhere so I'm guessing its a variety of yellow?

I want to have a go at the 3 sisters next year, I didn't have time this year.

Would you have to soak the dried sweetcorn overnight before cooking it?

[shirlthegirl43]

The seeds were blue, the plants have dark purple on the leaves - can't wait to see the cobs!!! If I have success growing them to maturity, I will let one cob dry and offer seeds to fellow grapes to try next year.

[chrissie the chippy]

and some piccies to look at

We're trying the mini sweetcorn as well as the normal sweetcorn, blue would be cool!

[lottielady]

Thanks everyone that has given me loads to mull over when the catalogues come out for next year.

[Alison]

Am trying it this year for the first time. Planted the corn in root trainers and then out into the garden when they were looking about 18" tall (ish). Put runner bean seeds in at the base at the same time. These have come through and are now threatening to outdo the sweet corn which appears to be very slow (don't normally grow it so no real experience). In addition, the squashes have been hit by slug damage and aren't anywhere near as big as they should be. Am also blaming the weather for this! On a plus point, the Red Alert toms nearby are doing great and have some quite large fruit on already which are way ahead of the Gardeners' Delight over the other side of the garden.

[craftyslh]

I'm trying this too. Planted the sweetcorn plants and some of the borlotti beans at the base with courgettes/squash in between. The beans are overtaking the sweetcorn as well, so I've put strings down one side for the beans to climb up the fence, not sure about the other side as they are in one of my side beds of my back garden, just outside the back door. They are looking healthy, but am wondering if the rain hasn't helped.

Hoping I can pick some of the corn when fresh though, as I love fresh sweetcorn.