How to grow beans, sweetcorn and squashes all at once with the three sisters planting combination.

The three sisters is a fascinating planting combination that looks lovely, is fun and easy to do and helps produce a great and varied harvest!

[@Tree-sw6mr]

Im trying the three sisters this year. That was very helpful thank you.

[@podgardening]

Good luck!!

[@blackcitroenlove]

Siyo! Great to see you growing this in the UK. I'm Eastern Cherokee and Ginitsi Selu (Our Mother Corn) looks over and nourishes us all. I grow a traditional flour corn type that we've grown for thousands of years, if you want seeds I can send them.

[@msblue8155]

What variety do you grow?

[@larellesdiyhomestead]

Thanks for the video 👍🏻♥️

[@robotsnthat]

Nice, not seen that before, but makes a lot of sense. Will you do doing a follow-up?

[@markfairman162]

I knackered my sweetcorn this year. We had some really lovely weather in the spring for a couple weeks and feeling brave with the bbq on I planted the seedlings out . We had about 4 frosts then and despite covering with fleece and plastics only about 5/8 out of probably 30 have any green left. I have a few more seeds on the go now. But lesson learned. My three sisters planting plan is a bit out of whack now as my squash is going well and beans sprouting, corn is behind

[@TheUltimateAcres]

This was really fun to watch. Considering g this was a short video. I learned so much. I will try this in my 100gal pots. #Keepupthegreatwork

[@podgardening]

Glad it was helpful!

[@gardenlikeaviking]

I would love to see a follow up on this... my experience with Three Sisters is that you MUST use flint corn aka "Indian corn" meant for drying and winter storage... also beans meant for drying and winter storage... sweet corn was a fail when I did it... but drying corn worked awesome

[@Clbind]

I’m trying sweet corn with butternut squash and rattlesnake dry beans. First year trying. I’ve heard it’s too hard to harvest beans and summer squashes but thought sweet corn would work. We’ll see.

[@TimForber69]

@@Clbind hi. What do you mean that it's "too hard" to harvest summer beans? You mean it's too hard to get to them? Maybe because of the squash vine growth?

[@corrinenolan344]

@TimForber69 traditionally the corn is planted first. A couple-few weeks ahead of beans and squash. It's a whole drying system. The Mesoamerican (mexica) people would use the corn for masa. For tortillas, atole, tamales, etc. All three...the corn, squash and beans are indigenous to present day mexico. So theirs was a grain corn. It was for grinding. Not for eating on the cob. The beans shoukd be brown and rattling, the corn should be dented and papery, the squash should be just ready to gather in the fall. So yes, if you're doing like one or two rows, maybe you could get to it but beans and squash will become a small jungle. They will vine out everywhere and it would be hard not to injure your other crops in the system while gathering the sweet corn. It's all supposed to be gathered near the same time. Sweetcorn has to be gathered in a timely manner.

[@wildrangeringreen]

@@corrinenolan344 I have a small farm (.6 acres of vegetable production), beds are 45" on center. I plant clumps of sweetcorn (honey select) in a quincunx pattern down the center of the beds, 5' between clumps. Then, when the corn is about 6" tall, I plant the pole beans (KY Blue, 4 per clump)(for the early plantings, I also plant a little bush beans to get early production). The rest of the area of the bed gets planted to all the other stuff I grow, not just cucurbits (I grow about 40 different things). Spacing the clumps out prevents the beans from causing the tangling issues you see if you plant "normal" rows of corn. The beans tie the clumps of corn together, so the wind doesn't blow them over. The clumps on each bed are also staggered, so the widely dispersed corn/beans provide a little shade in the field (while still allowing plenty of light to get to the ground), and allow everything else to do better in the summer heat (especially greens). The population of sweet corn on that .6 acres is slightly higher (6824) than a .3 acre "normally" (30"x12", 5227) planted sweetcorn monoculture, but allows me to grow a lot more stuff. I do an additional .33 acres in the back of the farm (to prevent pollen contamination) of flint corn, ayocote beans, field peas, and winter squash, and those are done the way you describe (large block of long, dense rows of corn, peas, and beans, with squash planted and sprawling into the aisles). It'd be too dense to get through to pick things at an immature state (sweetcorn, green beans, garden peas, melons, and summer squash/cucumbers) without damaging everything. Because this area doesn't get planted until late May, I plant winter Wheat, Rye, Winter Barley, Winter Lentil, and Winter Pea the fall before; and oats in the early spring. Those are harvested right as the summer crops are starting to really take off (July)

[@LaineyBug2020]

​@@wildrangeringreen I would love to get a visual chart of how you layout the sweet corn plantings! I can't have grain corn anymore so sweet corn would be the only way I could do a 3 sisters. Are you on any other platforms that have DMs?

[@camiladias9022]

Amazing tip!!!

[@AkeoGreen2059]

Thank you for your information

[@podgardening]

Pleasure

[@wjrwit9824]

We do that in my country.

[@TimForber69]

The image used in the thumbnail looks great! Is that from your patch?!

[@nonamelol6939]

Wow that's very interesting, I might try that next year. Also, is that how far apart corn have to be? I usually do them quite far (like 12 inches). Should I put them closer together?

[@podgardening]

There are various views on planting distance - anything from 6 inches (150mm) to 15 inches (375mm) apart.

[@nonamelol6939]

@@podgardeningOk, thank you

[@ThesouthernHomestead]

Can you do a follow up everyone says you can’t do sweet corn it has to be drying corn. Is that true? I want to do black beans, sweet corn and spaghetti, or butternut squash

[@podgardening]

Hi - you can use sweetcorn or drying corn - both create a structure for the beans and squash to relate to. Cheers

[@vincecammisano5256]

Can a make the squash grow off the ground

[@catherineelise8903]

My runner beans took my corn down. Maybe the variety?

[@The_Honcho]

Some corn varieties are weaker than others and can be smothered by the beans. What variety did you use? If you’re using a sweet corn you may want to consider a switch to (normally) stronger flint corn. Or you can let your corn get about a foot high before planting the beans

[@catherineelise8903]

@@The_Honcho I grew early sweet corn. Have to figure out best bean to grow with it. Thx for the tips.

[@micahamadeustillmon1564]

Click bait. Useful but still click bait

[@TimForber69]

Because of the thumbnail? I wouldn't say that it's clickbait but I do want to see abundant foliage like that!