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Old 07-12-2011, 01:00 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
General Schvantzkoph General Schvantzkoph is offline
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Default Three sisters method.

On Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:12:08 +0100, Gordon wrote:

General Schvantzkoph wrote in
:

On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:42:31 +0100, Gordon wrote:

A friend told me about the Three Sisters growing method. Apearently It
comes from the Native Americans who would grow Corn, Beans and Squash
together. The corn stalks would provide a trellis for the beans to
grow on, and the squash would grow on the ground and provide cover to
control the weeds. Sounds intresting.

Anyone else heard of it? Anyone tried it?


I tried it a couple of years ago It sounds like a good idea but it
didn't do any better than conventional techniques.


??? Well, did the plans yeild the same compared to if they were planted
separatly?

Wouldn't the yeild of (say) 100sf of soil be higher compared to planting
separatly? For instance: 100sf of corn, 100sf of squash, 100sf of peas
== 300sf of garden. VS 100sf of everything growing together?


I got a lot more corn this year with conventional planting then I did last
year with three sisters. However it doesn't prove anything since my corn
yields year to year are highly variable. I don't have a lot of sun so I
only do well in years that have longer growing seasons.