Three Sisters Query

[Vecten]

Bah ...... witchcraft.

[ian]

I tried this two years ago, in a very hot summer. I had a block of sweetcorn 6x5, I planted 4 squashes just inside each corner of the block. When the corn was about three feet tall I planted the beans. The result, not many beans, a lot of sweetcorn and lots of squash. I will always plant the corn and squash together but wouldn't bother with the beans.

[Alison]

Even if I don't get many beans, I'd still plant some cos then you get the advantage of the nitrogen added to the soil which will be good for the other crops.

[Two_Sheds]

I am only going to grow a 2 sister's bed in future, as my beans grow quicker and taller than my sweetcorn.
Pumpkins/squash are great ground cover for either.

[pjmt]

I think I shall keep it to 2 sister's next years, as by happy accident, I found some cucumbers growing in the sweetcorn...

[HayleyB]

I'm with TS on this, next year I'm going to plant peas, beans and sweetcorn in separate beds along with squashes and pumpkins for ground cover. This year when I grew the talls I felt that so much land was wasted underneath and got quite excited (sad - yep) when I watched GYO on tv and an old boy had grown squashes with corn successfully.

[zazen999]

The problem I found was that picking the beans in amongst the squash leaves was painful...so spiky.

I'll be growing winter squash with my corn in future - the beans get 2 beds of their own.

[smallblueplanet]

We did two sisters (corn and squash) last year, it worked okay and I think would have worked well if the weather had been better.

[Paulottie]

Ah! this thread...Ha, did get steamed up.......you just couldn't let it lie TS!!

Grew the beans and butternuts at the lottie and kept the sweetcorn at home away from the badgers ...so no sisters this year anyway.

[Comfreyfan]

Ah! this thread...Ha, did get steamed up.......you just couldn't let it lie TS!!

Very justified I thought!

I was pleased with my 3 sisters planting last year, all 3 crops did quite well considering the growing season we had.

But this year I'll start the corn earlier than the beans, I won't plant a bean with every corn and I'll plant the squash at the edges of the corn block. Hopefully that way I won't end up with the massive jungle I had this year which made it really difficult to get in and pick anything. Definitely kept the weeds down though and I'm very keen on that idea

[Jenegade]

I think I'm going to grow squash and sweetcorn together next year. Cant wait!

Do you think 4 sweetcorn together would be enough for pollination? Not sure I'd have enough room for more, as they seem to need to be spaced quite far apart.

[Two_Sheds]

Ah! this thread...Ha, did get steamed up.......you just couldn't let it lie TS!!

Eh? You what?

I resurrected the thread because Jimmy was asking about 3 sisters, and this thread had some useful info on it.


* goes off to see what Paulottie's on about

[crazy_red]

Bah ...... witchcraft.

That could offend a lot of people too!

To be precise - if you were born in the UK, our forebears aren't American either - Native or otherwise, our forebears are the ones who stayed here - dah!

I'm red-haired, Irish and one of seven sisters - I'm pretty sure I'd have been burned at the stake by your 17th century 'advanced Europeans'.......

Call it three sisters, or if that offends your modern sensibilities, call it:

intercropping with symbiotic species within a reduced footprint, that increases productivity and maximises profit whilst reducing capital outlay and that can be plotted on a Gantt chart with respect to it's requirements in terms of Critical Path Analysis using soft systems analysis techniques


Go pumpkin, go beans, go sweetcorn.......:

If your raised bed is against a wall, like mine, you could net the wall for the beans to climb up and plant the beans behind the corn..........

NB.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vecten
I think it's a bit suspect, trying to replicate a method of growing that was used in another Country, 300 years ago, with totally different varieties of plant that existed in those days. I like to think horticulture has moved on a little since then.

Has anyone mentioned just how many Heritage Varieties are available?

Red

[Alison]

intercropping with symbiotic species within a reduced footprint, that increases productivity and maximises profit whilst reducing capital outlay and that can be plotted on a Gantt chart with respect to it's requirements in terms of Critical Path Analysis using soft systems analysis techniques

LOL - like to see anybody get that in a thread title

[BrideXIII]

LOL - like to see anybody get that in a thread title

i was impressed anyone could type it!