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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] squash, corn and beans

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87@frontiernet.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] squash, corn and beans
  • Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:48:41 -0500


On Jan 21, 2011, at 11:00 AM, Jim Fruth wrote:

Michele in Ohio asked, "This is a little off topic, but has anyone seen recent research on the three sisters technique for squash, corn and beans?"

I have grown squash in the corn patch, planting them both (from seed) on the same day. It works, however the squash harvest suffers a bit as compared to growing squash in full sun. A few squash vines brought down corn stalks but the corn loss wasn't significant. The biggest problem came in the form of stepping on (unseen) squash vines during the corn harvest, ruining their potential productivity.


Michele, how new do you need the research to be? Here are some links from Cornell, including a general how-to article and also references to work done by Jane Mt. Pleasant at Cornell, some of which was published in 2004; and I found also a link to an online version of an article by my friend Stephen Lewandowski done in 1994.

I'd have to look back through the info to be sure; but a) I don't think you plant all the crops on the same day and b) some varieties work a lot better than others -- I expect that the corn variety needs to be one with relatively sturdy stalks. I believe that the yield from any one of the crops is less than if they're grown separately; but that the total yield from all three may add up to a higher yield per acre than the yield per acre from growing any of them separately -- I think this may be common in traditional intercropping systems.

If most of the corn was harvested as dry corn for storage, the squash would be done by then anyway, wouldn't they?

http://counties.cce.cornell.edu/wyoming/gardening/resources/projects/threesistergarden.html

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Feb04/AAAS.MtPleasant.kb.html

http://hort.cals.cornell.edu/cals/hort/people/mt_pleasant.cfm

http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/67_100/74may1994/74lewandowski.html




-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale







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