3 sisters gardening method, has anyone tried it??
Has anyone tried the 3 sisters gardening method, do you think it could be done in a small garden?
Discussions about the Three Sisters approach are scattered throughout the forum. Finding them is most likely possible only through use of Search the Forum.
Be sure to use "3" as well as "Three" and "three" in your search criteria. Many people here have tried it; the trick will be:
--How many people have used this method more than once?
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
Be sure to use "3" as well as "Three" and "three" in your search criteria. Many people here have tried it; the trick will be:
--How many people have used this method more than once?
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
Several drawbacks
1) Many Native American tribes did not use it. They planted the squash in a separate part of the garden/field for more sun.
2) Modern sweet corn is too short for pole beans
3) Modern pole beens are not adapted to low light corn culture.
4) For best pollination results corn should be grown in a fairly densly planted square. This is more important the fewer plants you grow. The recommended minimum for optimal results is a square of 100 plants (10 x 10), which most of us can't do.
5) Legumes only release nitrogen to the soil the year after they are grown, when they rot back into the soil.
6) Compared to other legumes, beans are terrible at fixing nitrogen (not much better than normal plants).
7) When there is enough nitrogen in the soil to grow corn it will inhibit nitrogen fixation by legumes (they don't need the nitrogen so they don't fix it).
Three sisters is a good dietary concept, and if you want to grow a Native North American (North American Native?) staple food garden add sunflowers for seeds and/or Sunchokes= Jeruselem artichokes (also a sunflower) for tubers. Its just best that you don't try to grow them all mixed together.
You can google and download "Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians" = "Buffalobird Woman's Garden" for a good look at agricultural methods of a three sisters (diet) culture.
1) Many Native American tribes did not use it. They planted the squash in a separate part of the garden/field for more sun.
2) Modern sweet corn is too short for pole beans
3) Modern pole beens are not adapted to low light corn culture.
4) For best pollination results corn should be grown in a fairly densly planted square. This is more important the fewer plants you grow. The recommended minimum for optimal results is a square of 100 plants (10 x 10), which most of us can't do.
5) Legumes only release nitrogen to the soil the year after they are grown, when they rot back into the soil.
6) Compared to other legumes, beans are terrible at fixing nitrogen (not much better than normal plants).
7) When there is enough nitrogen in the soil to grow corn it will inhibit nitrogen fixation by legumes (they don't need the nitrogen so they don't fix it).
Three sisters is a good dietary concept, and if you want to grow a Native North American (North American Native?) staple food garden add sunflowers for seeds and/or Sunchokes= Jeruselem artichokes (also a sunflower) for tubers. Its just best that you don't try to grow them all mixed together.
You can google and download "Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians" = "Buffalobird Woman's Garden" for a good look at agricultural methods of a three sisters (diet) culture.