This is my amateur attempt at three sisters gardening, or maybe just two of them. The corn is up and growing around the edges. I will thin it out and then plant pole beans after the corn is about six inches tall. Suppose to add squash but I am not sure I will try that in my make-shift arrangement
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/001_2012_April/IMG_0612.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/001_2012_April/IMG_0613.jpg[/img]
I'm not sure the three sisters method is well suited for a container, the purposes may be defeated. But as I said in another thread, the beans growing up the corn and linking them together helped keep them standing significantly when the high winds came with summer thunderstorms! I don't think squash would be a good idea. If the squash vine grew up a corn stalk and then got a fruit, the weight of the squash would be pulling the stalk down.
Just a thought.
But good luck with trying it in your containers! Even if the real reasons to do it aren't suited for a container, I'm sure you'll still get some good food out of it.
Keep us updated!
Just a thought.
But good luck with trying it in your containers! Even if the real reasons to do it aren't suited for a container, I'm sure you'll still get some good food out of it.
Keep us updated!-
jal_ut
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The three sisters, it is said they offer some aid to each other as they grow. Corn, beans and squash, also gives you all the amino acids your body needs. It is complete protein.
I think your trial may work, but I would thin that corn to 3 stalks per tub and plant 3 or 4 beans later. One summer squash seed (non-vining) in the center when you plant the beans. Have fun!
BTW, corn that size can be easily transplanted if you have somewhere to move some of it. I am just afraid it is way too crowded as is.
I think your trial may work, but I would thin that corn to 3 stalks per tub and plant 3 or 4 beans later. One summer squash seed (non-vining) in the center when you plant the beans. Have fun!
BTW, corn that size can be easily transplanted if you have somewhere to move some of it. I am just afraid it is way too crowded as is.
Hey, they plant it that close together in Illinois. Or at least they did in the mid 1970s. The soil is rich top soild from some farmland, so I will transplant some but grow as much as possible in the container.jal_ut wrote:BTW, corn that size can be easily transplanted if you have somewhere to move some of it. I am just afraid it is way too crowded as is.
BTW, my Mother saw them this weekend and said the same thing....you need to thin them out.
A friend and I were joking the other day about how neither of our gardens have, or probably will be as successful as our firsts. Where we had no idea what we were doing, everything was jammed into the space way too close together, and in shallow, unfit soil. Go figure.
Sometimes when I read about the effects of monoculture and standard farming practices and how they don't make so much sense I think you know, in nature everything grows right on top of each other and all mixed up. maybe one year I'll try the garden that way..............maybe I'll let someone else go first lol.
Sometimes when I read about the effects of monoculture and standard farming practices and how they don't make so much sense I think you know, in nature everything grows right on top of each other and all mixed up. maybe one year I'll try the garden that way..............maybe I'll let someone else go first lol.
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jal_ut
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There is a lot of space out West where things grow like this:
OK make a bed and mix some of your seed varieties in a cup then broadcast it on the bed and rake it in and see what happens.
Hmmmm, the word monoculture came up. I guess you can't accuse me of that, I am planting about 33 varieties on my small 7500 sq ft garden.
however, I don't see a lot that I could harvest for dinner. The things we grow in our gardens don't compete well in that environment. Maybe it is a matter of not enough water as the yearly rain is around 13 inches most of which comes in winter. Asparagus has escaped and grows along the roadsides in areas where it has been raised as a crop if it is near a ditch so it can get water. If you live where you get enough rain to garden without irrigation water you might make it work.in nature everything grows right on top of each other and all mixed up. maybe one year I'll try the garden that way.........
OK make a bed and mix some of your seed varieties in a cup then broadcast it on the bed and rake it in and see what happens.
Hmmmm, the word monoculture came up. I guess you can't accuse me of that, I am planting about 33 varieties on my small 7500 sq ft garden.
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jal_ut
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GardenRN, are you suggesting you had some beginners luck? Well, keep trying. Gardening is always a risk. Lots of things can happen to make or break a garden. The worst I ever had happen here was a year when I got wiped out with hail, not once but twice the same growing season, and yet still had some harvest. Untimely frosts have ruined the garden on occasion.
Other years, it seems, things just go well and one has a bounteous harvest. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Over the long haul, I would say, It is certainly worth the effort.
Other years, it seems, things just go well and one has a bounteous harvest. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Over the long haul, I would say, It is certainly worth the effort.
It's definitely a hobby that, good seasons or bad, I could never stop practicing. You could say beginner's luck. I think it's a combination of things that make it tougher than the first year. One would be that the first year had the fewest pests. So each consecutive year more pests locate and set up shop in your yard. Another thing is that as the garden expands, and more varieties are placed in the garden, you attract more pests. Not to mention, the more plants you have, the more will fail just based on odds. Some are just gonna be duds and there's nothing you can do about it.
I wouldn't say any year for me was a failure, more like I am the type to always think I could have done better. So maybe beginner's luck can be chalked up to low expectations the first year.
As far as monoculture goes, if someone was growing, say, a lettuce crop of all black seeded simpson, and a disease or pest came along that was particularly devastating to that variety, you'd probably lose all of your lettuce. Whereas I think the more you diversify your garden, the more chance you have of success. Or rather, the less chance you have of total failure. And planting everything together as I stated before, could be viewed as a sort of, dense companion planting I suppose. Maybe I will make a bed and broadcast a seed mix as you stated. It would be interesting to see how it does!
I wouldn't say any year for me was a failure, more like I am the type to always think I could have done better. So maybe beginner's luck can be chalked up to low expectations the first year.
As far as monoculture goes, if someone was growing, say, a lettuce crop of all black seeded simpson, and a disease or pest came along that was particularly devastating to that variety, you'd probably lose all of your lettuce. Whereas I think the more you diversify your garden, the more chance you have of success. Or rather, the less chance you have of total failure. And planting everything together as I stated before, could be viewed as a sort of, dense companion planting I suppose. Maybe I will make a bed and broadcast a seed mix as you stated. It would be interesting to see how it does!
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TheWaterbug
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Yeah. If you drive up Hwy 395 through central California you'll pass _lots_ of corn fields, and they pack 'em in tightly.jal_ut wrote:Hey, I have been to Illinois and I saw how the corn was planted. About 8 inches apart in the row and rows 36 inches apart.
I was just observing from the road at 55 MPH, but it looks like the in-row spacing was no more than 8 inches, if that.
I'm trying an experiment right now, _not_ thinning my corn. I planted every 12 inches, but I put 3-4 seeds in each hole, and [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=257041#257041]most of the seeds came up[/url] if any came up.
So I've got 3-4 stalks growing right on top of each other, and as of right now it doesn't seem to be hurting anything.
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jal_ut
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I plant corn with a drill and it drops one or two seeds every 9.5 inches. I make the row spacing 32 inches. I just let everything that germinates grow. This works out very well for me.
I once planted a plot twice this thick for a test. The corn around the edges had good ears, that in the center of the plot didn't even have ears. Grew a lot of nice tall stalks though. The variety was NK199 a very tall sweet corn. This is why I don't recommend a real tight planting.
Plantings too thin sometimes don't pollinate well and your cobs have spotty kernels on them.
Something in between usually works well. Different varieties may respond differently too. Try something! That is how we learn.
I once planted a plot twice this thick for a test. The corn around the edges had good ears, that in the center of the plot didn't even have ears. Grew a lot of nice tall stalks though. The variety was NK199 a very tall sweet corn. This is why I don't recommend a real tight planting.
Plantings too thin sometimes don't pollinate well and your cobs have spotty kernels on them.
Something in between usually works well. Different varieties may respond differently too. Try something! That is how we learn.
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TheWaterbug
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Did your dense stalks have ears that didn't fill? Or did they just have no ears at all?jal_ut wrote:I once planted a plot twice this thick for a test. The corn around the edges had good ears, that in the center of the plot didn't even have ears. Grew a lot of nice tall stalks though. The variety was NK199 a very tall sweet corn. This is why I don't recommend a real tight planting.
I'm going to watch my [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=257697#257697]dense corn[/url] carefully over the next few weeks. It's got some little shoots coming out of the middle of the stalks right now, and those look like they could be the beginnings of ears. If I don't get ears starting pretty soon I'll probably thin the stalks on my second planting, which is about a month behind this one.
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TheWaterbug
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rainbowgardener
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Here in the midwest, the farmers plant corn very densely. Going to visit family for the holiday weekend we pass miles of fields. Just to be sure it wasn't just an illusion from looking at it as I drove past at 60 miles an hour on the back of a motorcycle, I prevailed on my honey to stop the bike a couple times and let me walk the fields.
Corn is planted 2 - 4" apart in rows 20 - 24" apart.
Wheat, which has berries on it already is planted pretty much shoulder to shoulder in rows 6" apart.
In case it makes a difference this would be field corn, not sweet corn. In gigantic monoculture fields that go on forever.
Not saying I'm recommending any of that, just saying that's what big farmers out here do. I'm sure it is round up ready, GMO corn, and they fertilize and spray the heck out of the fields.
Corn is planted 2 - 4" apart in rows 20 - 24" apart.
Wheat, which has berries on it already is planted pretty much shoulder to shoulder in rows 6" apart.
In case it makes a difference this would be field corn, not sweet corn. In gigantic monoculture fields that go on forever.
Not saying I'm recommending any of that, just saying that's what big farmers out here do. I'm sure it is round up ready, GMO corn, and they fertilize and spray the heck out of the fields.
Last edited by rainbowgardener on Wed May 30, 2012 3:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
Today, I planted the beans. I waited until the corn was pretty tall because the beans I planted send up long runners very quickly.
Recently, I thinned the corn a bit, but will let these grow and see what they do
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/001_2012_April/IMG_0647.jpg[/img]
Recently, I thinned the corn a bit, but will let these grow and see what they do
[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/001_2012_April/IMG_0647.jpg[/img]