Three Sisters

[TeeDee]

So , Three sisters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture) is a method of stacking growing systems and timings to offer the most production from a small amount of land and for the plants to assist each other.

Has anyone have a spin on this system using other plants? Corn never does that wll for me in the UK ( seemingly slow to grow compared to the squash ) and I'm tempted to use Something else as substitute stand-in.


Anyone have any other stacking systems that work well?

 

[British Red]

I've tried it with fairly authentic plants (e.g. Hopi blue corn).

Failed

 

[zornt]

Beans and tomatoes seem to compliment each other. My Dad always grouped them together and had a lot of success.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

For the last two years I have used a 2 sisters approach, just the beans and the squash. Off a single 4' x 4' bed last year I got 5lb of green beans, 1/2lb dried beans, and 1.5kg of pumpkin.

I tried the same this year. The beans have been a pretty much total failure, all the beans I've planted in the garden have either failed to germinate (climbing beans - cherokee trail of tears), or germinated, got 6" tall, and then been eaten by something (3 types of dwarf beans), meaning this years harvest is so far looking like it will be: 3 bean pods...

The pumpkin? well, see the thread on triffids... So far I have found 8 fruit forming on the plant...

Julia

 

[General Strike]

I've tried peas and maize together and got good results. I've tried the three sisters this year (ish - sweetcorn, beans, and courgettes) and the beans and courgettes are going well but the sweetcorn has been struggling. Then again I didn't plant the sweetcorn in a timely fashion this year.

I've had years where the beans did as badly as quixoticgeek's. In fact I planted peas with the maize after a 100% failure to germinate on the bean front that year. My wife saves old packets but in my experience beans don't store well - I've had much more success just kicking the dirt over a few stray beans that fell out of dried pods as I stripped off the old plants, than using beans from a packet that was more than a couple of years old.

 

[TeeDee]

I was wondering if Sunflower ( ok , not ideal but Sunflower seeds are edible ) would make a passable replacement for the Corn? How quick growing a Sunflower is I can't remember but both times when I've previously tried Three sisters with Corn the Squash plants have smothered the Corn in no time and halted growing. And that was growing in the SW of England so Sunshine and warmth were in abundance.

 

[nephilim]

Do remember, you need to do crop rotation if you plan to grow.

This is how I do my crop rotation (based from another website)

Potatoes are starred because they shouldn't be grown in soil where peppers, tomatoes or aubergines have grown. I tend to grow them in boxes.