Thom Bri

May, looking forward to seeing the results.

The volunteer beans shown in the pic above are frost-killed. The pea survived.

Blake Lenoir wrote: Why are American farmers planting more soybeans? What's the value of them?

In the US 'Corn Belt' corn is the most profitable crop most years. But it needs lots of nitrogen. Soybeans are the second-most profitable crop and it supplies nitrogen.

Depending on market conditions farmers plant more or less soybeans. If nitrogen is cheap they grow more corn.

Soybeans have another benefit. Pests that eat corn mostly don't eat soybeans, and vice versa. So by alternating you are reducing insect damage.

Catie George wrote:I will be following this with interest again this year.

I tried the 3 sisters method for the second time last year, and had poor success. I think by the time it's past last frost here, it seems to also be past spring rains, so the hills become a detriment. Rain was long, long past by the time it was bean planting time, with 1 ft tall corn. I did have success with no racoon predation on my corn, after focusing on surrounding the corn hills with squash, which I had read deterred them.  The hills were a challenge to irrigate. it was also a brand new garden, and weeds were a major challenge, since I started it with filling under weedy grass.

My plan is to plamt my corn this year in a block, completely surrounded by a circle of squash. I'll try  to plant beans on the edges. Sort of 'best of both worlds'  idea.

The '3 sisters' is kind of untrue anyway. What records we have show that lots of stuff the old natives planted was in monocultures anyway. Particularly squash which loses a lot of production when together with corn.

I worked in a small village in Central America for 2 years. People still tilled with oxen pulling scratch plows, and hoes. They mostly didn't intercrop much. Some squash and occasionally beans were planted together with the corn.

Do what works for you and ignore most of what you read on the internet!

By the way, grass is by far my worst weed. About the only thing that works for me is to absolutely bury it under mulch and I still spend more time killing grass than almost any other activity.

I received 3 packs of popcorn seeds for Christmas this year. Planted 3 rows today in a separate plot. I will add a few of these seeds in with my 3 sisters corn to add some genetic variety later in May. Black, red and pink corn.

Frost in the forecast the next few nights.

This year US farmers are planting a bit more soybeans than usual and a bit less corn.

Joao Winckler wrote:The water management between the hills is clever. Keeping that moisture in the low spots rather than letting it run off makes a real difference in a dry year. Curious how the early corn planting goes, planting into cold soil is always a gamble but sometimes it just sits there and waits for warmth rather than rotting.

In theory there should be a measurable difference between hill-planted and row-planted corn. In the early 1900s there was a lot of debate between farmers and a lot of research done at ag colleges. They found no real difference in final yield, probably because row planting also has some advantages, mainly by spacing the plants more evenly.

But for me there is an advantage not captured in those trials. By using hills, widely spaced, I can intercrop other plants and get pretty good yields of secondary crops as well as corn. Since I am not selling the corn, it doesn't matter if I get a few bushels less. Modern research suggests that the total productivity of mixed plots is higher, even though each individual crop has lower productivity.

As far as early planting into cold soil, it's a gamble. Some years I get good results and other years not. This year I planted some peas and carrots VERY early an got almost no germination. Other years it has worked very well. I have no idea what the difference is. Last year I planted corn pretty early in May and replanted about 1/3 of it 20 days later. I save lots of seeds so having to replant isn't a problem, just an annoyance. But if I had limited seed I'd wait longer.

And first volunteer of the year.

Weather chilly again. Nighttime temps predicted near freezing. Cold rain. I had planned to plant corn soon but may wait. Corn needs warm soil to sprout.
New 3-sisters pics. First sprouting pea, planted on the 18th, so ten days. Planted on the same hill the corn will be planted on in a week or so:

Planted 3 rows of sweet corn today. It's pretty early to be planting, and it's a very small, early variety, so hoping for some very early sweet corn this year. Then in a week I will plant the longer season corn, and if I feel energetic a third planting later.

Tried this last year and total planning failure! It was so dry that nothing sprouted. Finally I replanted it all, then it rained and everything came up at once, the whole plot in one giant wave of corn. Mostly small ears, but we were literally eating 20+ ears of corn every day, just two people. This spring has had good rains so hopeful.

This not in my totally organic 3 sisters plot, this is on the edge of a conventionally farmed field and pretty much ends up the opposite of organic.