|
|
Post by mickey on Feb 23, 2012 19:06:25 GMT -5
Corn, beans, squash in the same hill known as the three sisters. As I have a small garden I'm thinking of doing this in part of my garden. and I'm asking what kinds of plants should I use for this?
|
|
|
|
Post by spacecase0 on Feb 23, 2012 19:32:00 GMT -5
use kinds that dry totally
harvesting will only go well when done all at once,
so a field corn that is strong enough not to get drug down easy by the beans,
winter squash,
and a bean that will not drag the corn to the ground but still climbs over the squash.
|
|
|
|
Post by mickey on Feb 23, 2012 19:55:10 GMT -5
One place said Indian Corn, Rattlesnake Beans,Sugar Pie Pumpkins, the corn and beans in the same hill and the pumpkins in hills between the corn and bean hills. and in at least a 10by 10 foot space if not more. With 4 corn and bean plants in each hill and thin the pumpkins to 2 plants in there hills. and to make the hills 5 foot apart. as I'm not a master gardener I seek advice here.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 23, 2012 20:49:16 GMT -5
When I look at 3 sisters plantings on the web, the thing I notice most often is that they get overplanted... Nearly always there is too much corn... And everything is planted much too close together. The traditional spacing is one hill of corn/beans every 10-12 feet with a hill of squash between each hill of corn/beans. I'd choose a flour corn, and a winter squash, and a drying bean. That way you don't have to be tromping down the squash trying to harvest the corn and the beans.
|
|
|
|
Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Feb 23, 2012 21:05:08 GMT -5
I've never planted a three sisters plot, but when i think about how i would do it i think of a rectangle with each plant in it's on dedicated spot instead of all tangled up over each other. I would probably plant a section all corn, a section all squash, and several rows of beans. I'd probably then just use a form of crop rotation in conjunction. But i've never tried any form, so i wouldn't know which form would work better.
|
|
|
|
Post by mickey on Feb 23, 2012 21:06:39 GMT -5
That,s why I ask I don't care for green beans so i'm looking for the plants and timing of planting so they will be ready at the same time. what is a good pole bean to use for a dry bean? And what squash? I'm in zone 5a last frost mid May.
|
|
|
|
Post by canadamike on Feb 23, 2012 21:13:10 GMT -5
I ''half agree'' with Joseph, maybe I did not get it right, being french...
10-12 feet between ''pools'' of 3 sisters is a lot of waste space, traditionnal or not...it might have been like that hundreds of years ago, but then, they did have plenty of room...
It works beautifully when well spaced, my 3 sisters ''whatever you call it in english'' things where quite productive, to me, it is basically a 5 feet circle or something like that, a hill of manure and compost and dirt in the middle, about 2 feet wide, a squash right dab in the center of it, then, 3 feet from the center or so, corn evry 9 inches and beans 2 inches away from the corn seed.
It works, native corn is famous for lodging, but in this configuration the friggin beans lock them up all together. A beautiful mess of some sort,with the squashes in the lot...
Not the picture the ''Martha's'' gardeners would want, it is far from clean looking, but to me it is poetry...
I always made sure to be able to walk between the ''whatever you call them in english, bunches, hills or else'' but they are great in a personnal garden.
Unpractical in mechanized faming, but we are working with the 2 sisters here, beans and corn, and it does increase sileage protein content by 2%, wich is a lot...anybody here knows about a CHEAP source of pole beans in bulk....talking a ton or more here?
It would be much appreciated
|
|
|
|
Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Feb 23, 2012 21:25:46 GMT -5
That,s why I ask I don't care for green beans so i'm looking for the plants and timing of planting so they will be ready at the same time. what is a good pole bean to use for a dry bean? And what squash? I'm in zone 5a last frost mid May. I'm just barely jumping into squash this year, but i'm leaning toward the hopi varieties (which are somewhat hard to find). As for beans, my favourites are Anasazi (pole version), and Zuni Gold. The four corners runner is also a nice climber. But take my recommendations with a grain of salt, because my preferences are usually biased to varieties from my region. |
|
|
|
Post by Leenstar on Feb 23, 2012 21:41:05 GMT -5
I grew the following which worked well together
1. 2 inch Strawberry Popcorn. Produced very well. I have kernals 2 and half years later my daughter and I enjoy as popcorn
2. hidatsa Shield figure beans- a pole bean that grew up the corn. i didn't plant it close enough to the corn so I grew, fell over then reached the corn and grew up the stalks. I think this did allow the corn to grow up enough before the beans started climbing up
3. Pennsylvanian Crook Neck squash. I opnly planted a couple of plants but one great particularly great and made a squash that last 6 months before I used it. It was gigantic and super sweet when I finally used it and cooked it. Made a dessert out of its puree.
I grew this in a 2 yard by 1 yard rectangle and these three did very well together.
There was a particularly bad Japanese beetle populated that year. they loved the beans and covered the corn but I still got good yields. The patch was right next to a plot of edemame which were also an attractant to the Japanese beetle. it also didn't help that I did this at a community garden plot and my neighbor planted a pheromone trap within a yard of this three sisters trial.
|
|
|
|
Post by mickey on Feb 24, 2012 1:58:54 GMT -5
hidatsa Shield figure beans I like the look of them I think I'll go with then for the beans. I would like a tall growing corn, flint if possible. and a winter squash. what would you go with? I could buy a acorn squash at the store and save the seeds. I do have the blue Hopi Joseph sent Carolyn, but I don't think we have enough of them for the patch we want to grow. What corn would go with the Hopi and not cross too bad?
|
|
|
|
Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 24, 2012 8:04:24 GMT -5
Tall Flints- Rhode Island/Narrangansett, King Phillip, Longfellow
For the pseudo 3-sisters we do I plant the corn in rows and plant the beans in the rows at the base of the plants. I've been using cutshort beans just because I like the way they look. I've got a mixture of Amish Gnuttle, Brown Speckled Greasy, and Red Sugar Cutshort. I've been hoping they'd start crossing and giving me some intermediate types but no signs of it yet. They don't seem to do fabulous in the middle of the corn, probably need to open up my rows wider, get some more light in there. I got Blackcoat Runner from Seed Dreams, I'm excited to try that one as a cornfield been as well. Squash have done terrible inside the corn do great on the periphery, I'm thinking of doing a complete winter squash surround the corn to deter late season raccoon activity. It's really too dark in row-planted corn for squash to do well, the wide spaced hill system is necessary for a true full intercrop. I think its way more likely that native farmers did all number of variations on intercropping from a full 3 or 4 or 5 sisters intercrop to separate planting blocks like in Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden.
|
|
|
|
Post by canadamike on Feb 24, 2012 12:50:24 GMT -5
Runner beans do relatively well in corn, I saw ten acres of the mix last summer. You do not get full production, bu with a large number of plants and the double harvest, it is more than decent.
|
|
|
|
Post by mickey on Feb 27, 2012 19:01:19 GMT -5
I bough a acorn squash at the store today and saved the seeds from it, now all I need is some beans. and some more corn. I don't do online buying so must depend on what I can find in town. I made a note of some of the seeds you guys talked about, I will see what I can find in seed packets around town.
|
|
|
|
Post by blueadzuki on Feb 27, 2012 19:31:54 GMT -5
I'm planning to do a "sort of" 3 sisters plan in parts on the garden (I say "sort of" becuse my beans are cowpeas, and whatever cucurbit I put in, it is NOT going to be a squash, as no one in my family likes them much. Maybe I'll try for watermelons) However after the incident last year where the beans all out grew the corn and so took it down when it was too small to bear the weight then collapased from lack of support, I'm trying something a little different. Today I started the corn inside, so that by the time it goes out, It will be partially developed plants (this should also stop me losing 95% of my corn to starving squirrels who use the sprouts to figure out where the still not really used up seeds are located) whne the corn goes out into the garden the bean seeds will be planted around them, far enough to not damage the corn roots, but close enough to still train the plants around the stalks. I think this should work
|
|
|
|
Post by turtleheart on Feb 28, 2012 6:06:06 GMT -5
mickey that acorn you got seeds from was probably a bush hybrid and unfortunately that is not bred to work well as the third sister. the larger the plant the squash makes the better. old pie pumpkin and cheese squashes tend to work well. there are also some heirloom acorns that make large enough plants.
|
|
