Corn dang it, full disclosure.

[Ridgerunner]

Yep, the three sisters. Some Native Americans planted a type of corn that dried in the fall for cornmeal. That provided a stake for pole beans to climb on. The pole beans fixed nitrogen and made dried beans. Winter squash ran all over the ground, provided more food for the winter and acted as a living mulch so no weeding was required after a certain point. I don't know the details of plant spacing but after the squash took over the only work before fall harvest was to have boys spend nights out there protecting it from certain animals like raccoons and non-domesticated goats.

If you try that with sweet corn, bush or snap beans, and summer squash it just does not work as well. I have some experience with that. Well, not the bush beans, even I could figure that part out.

 

[digitS']

The only success I had with 3 Sisters was realizing that the harvest was probably at the end of the season. In other words,
winter squash
dry beans
flour corn

Then! It was a terrific way to garden .

Before, I was stepping on squash vines trying to reach the sweet corn in August. And, the puny varieties of early sweet corn that I usually grow had plants pulled down by the weight of climbing beans.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only success I had with 3 Sisters was realizing that the harvest was probably at the end of the season. In other words,
winter squash
dry beans
flour corn

Then! It was a terrific way to garden .

Before, I was stepping on squash vines trying to reach the sweet corn in August. And, the puny varieties of early sweet corn that I usually grow had plants pulled down by the weight of climbing beans.

Steve

My experiences exactly.

 

[seedcorn]

Corn yields will be off some. In home garden, hard to tell.

 

[baymule]

3 sisters=beans over run the corn stalks, knock them down. Squash(pumpkin) over runs the corn and beans making a snarl. Uh....no.

 

[flowerbug]

i wonder if they actually stayed there to tend them like a garden or if instead they planted in the clearings and then moved on further north where it was cooler, then on the way back through in the fall they could harvest and then head further south...

 

[digitS']

I put teepee poles up for the climbing beans in my 3 Sisters Garden the last year.

It worked really well . I only had to do one quick untangle.

Perhaps this defeats some of the basic idea but I wasn't gardening in a wilderness clearing. My "teepee poles" might have been milled 1 by 2's but Great Grandfather was on my mind when I set them up .

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

@Collector , I hope you won't mind me posting some of my Painted Mtn. corn pics on your sweet corn thread.
I just love some of the burgundy hues that some of the stalks display. And some of the tassels too.

@baymule , this is from my saved seed, that last year got 6ish feet tall. I don't remember exactly, but it was over my head. In this location it's doing good to get 4'. So I think a great deal of the reason is fertility. The spot I had it in last year was much better soil and I had layered coop cleanings there the fall before. This garden has serious maple tree competition.

 

[baymule]

That Painted Mountain corn is pretty throughout the entire growing cycle. From planted seed to the corn plant, to the actual corn. Pretty stuff.

 

[Collector]

@thistlebloom , that is some nice looking corn plants, do you have to use anything on them to keep pests off.