Thank you. Your previously shared pics are very nice too. Great thread topic.

I tried a multiple crop in one area of my garden. I put in green and yellow beans over sweet potato slips with peppers bordering one side. They beans preformed great and I see a lot of growth on the SPs, the vote on the peppers is still out. I got them in a week or so too soon and they have been slow ever since.

Sometimes peppers are very slow- not even producing til Aug...
Love everyones pictures, sometimes the 3 sisters is about conserving space, so layouts can be various patterns. If you plant a nonsturdy corn for your beans, you can add a trellis for those vines- aids in harvests as the season progresses. The roots are then providing the nutrients each requires. Summer squashes can be reached more easily.

Here I tried it with Amaranth zuchini and pinto beans. I over planted the zuchini, and lost most of the amaranth to dry out just after germination. Got plenty of Zuchs, and as many beans as I planted. I also REALLY murdered that soil with a tiller, so that didn't help. I'd say get your stalk plants and your beans sprouted b4 planting the squash.

Ape_Goblin said:Here I tried it with Amaranth zuchini and pinto beans. I over planted the zuchini, and lost most of the amaranth to dry out just after germination. Got plenty of Zuchs, and as many beans as I planted. I also REALLY murdered that soil with a tiller, so that didn't help. I'd say get your stalk plants and your beans sprouted b4 planting the squash.

Welcome to NGA, @Ape_Goblin .

That's an interesting variation on the traditional field corn/pole beans/winter squash combination!

Thanks for the welcome. I let this one grow out for seed... just gotta remember where I put them I'll probably do Sunflower, pole bean and winter squash in the spring

Weedwhacker said:Welcome to NGA, @Ape_Goblin .

That's an interesting variation on the traditional field corn/pole beans/winter squash combination!

He was here a few years ago. But I like the 3 sisters idea.

I've never gotten it to work. The pole beans and squash grow faster than the corn plants, pulling them down. Do I have the wrong corn plants? I lover bicolor corn for eating. Maybe the ones that work are the kind you grind into cornstarch that grow tall faster. Thoughts?

Who was "here several years ago" ? The post I replied to was from the beginning of 2018 (although this thread was started much longer ago than that).

The 3 sisters concept was originally used for growing beans that would be harvested for the dry seeds, winter squash, and field-type corn that would be harvested to grind into corn meal. In other words, everything is basically left to grow until it's mature at the end of the season. That said, there's no reason you can't take advantage of the nitrogen that beans add to the soil to benefit a planting of corn - just use bush or half-runner beans with your sweet corn. My experience with adding squash to the group is that it makes it nearly impossible to get to the corn and beans to harvest them.

Weedwhacker said:Who was "here several years ago" ? The post I replied to was from the beginning of 2018 (although this thread was started much longer ago than that).

The 3 sisters concept was originally used for growing beans that would be harvested for the dry seeds, winter squash, and field-type corn that would be harvested to grind into corn meal. In other words, everything is basically left to grow until it's mature at the end of the season. That said, there's no reason you can't take advantage of the nitrogen that beans add to the soil to benefit a planting of corn - just use bush or half-runner beans with your sweet corn. My experience with adding squash to the group is that it makes it nearly impossible to get to the corn and beans to harvest them.

I don't recall precisely, but I must have found a post from Ape Goblin in archives. But that doessn't matter.

My historical reading of The 3 Sisters is that the tall corn grew, the pole beans climbed the cornstalks, and the squash leaves shaded the ground sufficiently to suppress weeds. My practical experience is that it doesn't work with modern plants. Corn is too weak to support modern pole beans, and squash vines are more bushy and don't spread. And they must have been Winter Squash (which I don't like) to be ready for harvest in late season. That's why I'm tried melons in place of vining squash. I wonder if they meant pumpkins? Anyway, melons have the same large leaves, but they are willing to climb the cornstalks and that pulls the modern cornstalks down.

I'd love to get that to work, but maybe it needs to be older open-pollinated varieties.

It's been awhile since reading about The Three Sisters but from what I recall it does need to be the old heirloom (open pollinated) tall and sturdy varieties of corn. Then you should wait until the corn gets about five or six inches tall before planting the beans around each stalk. The old rule was plant four seeds (I think) per stalk. After the bean sprouts get going, then plant the squash (or melon which seems like a great choice to me too ) to shade the ground and help keep pests away.

I've done something similar with sunflowers as the large, sturdy stalk for vines. It worked well.

wildflowers said:After conversation on the companion planting forum, I thought it would be good to start a discussion about this popular Guild.

Does anyone have first hand experiences to share?

The not so ugly fourth sister rarely spoken about would be Sunflower, which increases the corn yield, or bee balm which increases the squash pollination.