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Post by turtleheart on Feb 28, 2012 6:08:13 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. that is not traditional three sisters for me. there is more than one method. |
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Post by turtleheart on Feb 28, 2012 6:22:16 GMT -5
buffalo bird woman talks about "touch eachother" corn. i avoid it as well, but not with 10-12 foot spaces. when the corn is all grown in there is enough room for me to stand in between the hills, and have the sunlight hit the ground for the most part where i stand. the hills are made to suit me, larger than the average, because im larger than average, and i can reach the center of a hill 5-6 feet wide with ease. i plant 10-15 corn to a hill, 2 beans to a corn, and i cover the hill with squash seeds. the squashes usually get hit the worst by pests and animals here so i have to overplant. i mulch constantly and that is similar to traditional only back then there was enough land to use sod as mulch. now i leave all the grasses living when i use their overgrowth for mulch. the hills are never disturbed after being formed. tilling is exaggerated in european accounts of our farming, and i fear it may be due to assuming our techniques are the same as hidatsa mandan, but the way we farmed before colonization was very different from eachother.
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Post by mickey on Feb 28, 2012 12:16:31 GMT -5
The squash I got was a yellow acorn squash a product of Mexico. Do you still think it is a bush? If that don't beat all, here I'm on foot and walk 4 blocks to the store and get a squash from Mexico.
I guess I'm stuck with seeing what the big box stores have in seed packets.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 28, 2012 12:20:31 GMT -5
Anybody got some Thelma Sanders they can send to Mickey?
Mickey, you might consider joining the Seed Savers Exchange, there's lots of folks on the exchange that only will trade through the mail for cash or money order if you don't like electronic transactions. There's even a kid in Minnesota that wants to transact with silver coins! Talk about hard currency.
The seed in the box stores is usually lousy quality due to improper handling but you can grow a decent garden with them in most places in an average season. If you can only get by with box store packets buy as many as you can when they go on clearance so you have extra to make up for poor germination rates.
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Post by turtleheart on Feb 28, 2012 17:17:14 GMT -5
luxury pie pumpkin for a pepo, long island cheese for a moschata and penasco cheese for a maxima, those would be my favorites right now.
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Post by traab on Feb 29, 2012 16:34:23 GMT -5
I am new to this style of planting. I am glad to see the statement that people planted in many ways. For me it makes sense to plant food you want to eat. Work with varieties and learn over a few years how they can grow in proximity while allowing each to do well.
I tried a squash between early short corn and was moving vines to un-smother the corn! Bush beans between short corn hills may have been better. But the short corn would have been smothered by pole beans if they had been planted in the hill. I will learn to do it different next time.
In a different row planting Box beans were early and productive on King Phillip Yellow corn which was planted far apart. In an open spot squash did well in the sun and wandered under the corn later. These corn and squash varieties may have been grown in the region before. I had wanted to grow them for some time.
I am learning how to use varieties new to me and what plantings work well together. For most people growing what they want to eat and adapting the planting method may offer a learning experience to increase the food production in their garden.
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Post by mickey on Mar 3, 2012 12:19:41 GMT -5
I went to the big box store and looked at the garden seeds, but didn't find any thing I wanted for the three sisters in the time I had in the store. I did find on line one of the sites said some thing about (natures pet) for the beans I think that was the name of it. I guess it helps the roots fix nitrogen.
PS, Carolyn wants to know if there's a three brothers in the garden world? She said if I was planting sisters she wants some brothers.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 3, 2012 12:43:27 GMT -5
PS, Carolyn wants to know if there's a three brothers in the garden world? She said if I was planting sisters she wants some brothers. ;D haha, well i suppose you could plant watermelon instead of squash, peas instead of beans, and something tall like amaranth instead of corn. That's my idea of a "three brothers garden". But i'm sure there are all kinds of ways to do companion planting, so it probably doesent matter what other people do, just figure out what works best for you, the plants you have, and the environment you live in. |
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Post by turtleheart on Mar 4, 2012 8:35:46 GMT -5
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Post by turtleheart on Mar 4, 2012 8:37:50 GMT -5
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Post by mickey on Mar 4, 2012 11:26:29 GMT -5
Thank you, but I don't have any credit cards to use online, and if I try to use a check if trows them for a loop. the links you posted are mostly Canadian and the ones I looked at don't send to the USA. I'm almost blind so it's hard for me to read a lot of the web sites. Dark colors and all that jumbled stuff on a lot of them.
PS it takes a long time for me to type as it's hard for me to see the keyboard so a lot of the time I hit the wrong key and have to go back and retype and use spell check a lot.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 4, 2012 11:35:38 GMT -5
Mickey,
Most seed companies still have paper catalogs and will take checks. If you go online and get their phone numbers I guarantee you they will send you a free catalog ASAP. The box store seed is usually poorly handled. Do you have any farm andfeed stores nearby? At least around here most feed stores have seed for sale in the spring and it is usually fresher and cheaper than the stuff at the box stores JMO. Not talking Tractor Supply Co though, in my experience TSC is just another box store as far as seed is concerned. Like an Agway or Southern States or a family feed store.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 4, 2012 11:37:25 GMT -5
Anyhow mickey, give me your address on a PM and I can send you some decent corn and beans for 3 sisters. I can throw in some squash too but they won't be an acorn, I don't have any vining acorn squashes.
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Post by mickey on Mar 5, 2012 0:42:36 GMT -5
Anyhow mickey, give me your address on a PM and I can send you some decent corn and beans for 3 sisters. I can throw in some squash too but they won't be an acorn, I don't have any vining acorn squashes. Thank you the squash don't have to be a acorn what ever you think will work I'l leave it up to you. I'm packing the tomato seeds to send you now. |
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Post by canadamike on Mar 5, 2012 16:45:03 GMT -5
Anyhow mickey, give me your address on a PM and I can send you some decent corn and beans for 3 sisters. I can throw in some squash too but they won't be an acorn, I don't have any vining acorn squashes. Can I come in and very very strongly recommend THELMA SANDERS as an ideal vining acorn for the 3 sisters? The vine is very long, the squashes the perfect size, and the cultivar is the most prolific I have seen...but since there is usually over 10 squashes per vine, the weight is split all over the plants... |
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