The three sisters

[Farmer_Gyles]

i was always told the 3 sisters was corn, beans and lettuce .... although could grow almost anything instead of the lettuce ....

the corn is always late to grow, so if growing beans up it, it needs planting late ... best to have an earlier planting of beans up normal canes as well ....

i'll have a block of 16 or 20 sweetcorn this year .... i'll plant whatever i can between them and hopefully have beans growing up all of them ..... whatever i grow in the middle of the block will become difficult to reach, so will be the stuff i pick late, ie, squash, where i don't need to get to it, and beans for late picking or to save for seeds next year .... i'll have lettuce / courgettes / etc around the outside of the block within easy reach ....

fingers crossed it all works!

[Nicos]

You know- I had no idea the 3 sisters was meant for dried produce!

Well there ya go! This place is brill!

[Farmer_Gyles]

if you can pick it, why not eat it?!

[Kaiya]

Do you mean why dry the beans and corn? It's just to preserve it - you still eat it.

[ukfapower]

I've had a lot of luck with beans and squash - last year we built a tower for them both to climb and got 5 and a half Crown Prince squash and plenty of beans out of a tiny bed I've only got 3 squash from in the past. The squash had to be tied in to the tower as they grew. Also a couple of squash plants in amongst the sweetcorn seems to work quite well.



But as others have said, when I tried the full 3 sisters the beans played rough with the sweetcorn. I also got poor sweetcorn pollenation but I don't suppose I can blame the beans for that. I've seen it suggested that choosing a less vigorous bean variety might help.

[GardeningMike]

Has anyone had any luck using the "three sisters" method by using sweetcorn as supports for runner beans and squash grown in the space underneath ? Would like to try this as a project with my Granddaughter.

I think the problem you'll have is that your runner beans will outgrow your sweet corn in no time, even with a late June planting of beans and an early planting of corn. You'll need the tallest sweet corn (7 foot) that you can get, but their height will be compromised if your site is windy and not sheltered.

However you might try a semi-climbing french-bean type (e.g. a 4 foot climber - I think Blue Lake fits this description). The three sisters method practised traditionally by the indigenous peoples of Central America had only the semi-climbing types available to them which are indigenous to that area. I'm sure that with these 'dwarf-climber' types it would work well.

Good luck with this - do let me know how you get on as I have always thought it would be a really neat system to grow your own fruiting bean poles (sweet corn) and have beans climbing up them and cropping too.

Kind regards
GardeningMike
(horticulturist)

[SarzWix]

I'm going to be doing this with the gardening club at school. I've already explained the downfalls of the system to them, and asked them why they think it might not work in this country while it works in the US. They very intelligently came up with differing season lengths and peak temperatures, and thought that a good way round the problem would be to put canes in for the beans to grow up in between the corn, and to make sure we feed the ground enough to cope with 3 crops in one space We'll be doing beans for drying, and winter squash, in between an early variety of corn

[Creemteez]

I had some unintentional success last year with volunteer pumpkins coming up in amongst my runner beans. (Un-composted seeds in the compost!) I the pumpkin plants quickly covered the ground and swarmed up the bean frame, Fortunately the beans were runners and won the race to the top of the supports.
I did wonder if the beans did the squashes a favour with the squashes feeding off the nitrogen nodules that the beans produce on their roots. Going to try the same in a different bed this year - but planting squash varieties that I have CHOSEN!
I tried sweetcorn and squash together a couple of years ago, but the squash did not fruit very well. I put it down to the sweetcorn shading them out too much.

[Kaiya]

I asked as a separate post but got no replies so apologies for a hijack! How do you space two/three sisters? I was planning on putting curcurbits (cucumbers, winter squash and courgettes) in with my sweetcorn - the curcurbits will be allowed to sprawl over surrounding paths if they want/need, but Tony mentioned earlier having issues with corn being too close together for the underplanting - how close should you plant them?

[Creemteez]

Depends on the size of the bed/area you are using, Kaiya. My raised beds are 4'x8' and I usually grow twenty sweetcorn plants per bed - 4 plants by 5 rows . The squashes or pumpkins went into the gaps in the middle of the bed - if my memory serves me right.
A bit like this *= Sweetcorn, @ = Squash



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[Kaiya]

Mine are 1m x 4m ish, the I have potentially about 30 sweetcorn (planted the whole packet, thought I might as well). So that should work out reasonably similar then - slightly lower density for me but I should have plenty of curcurbits if I run out of sweetcorn to fill the bed. Thank you!

[Creemteez]

You're welcome. Don't forget to feed, feed, feed your curcurbits as they will be in major competition with the corn for nutrients. Lots of well rotted muck when they go in and Tomato food when they start to set flower. Be a good idea to sink a cut off water bottle next to each plant to allow you to water more easily too!