Three Sisters Garden year 3, 2025

To add, watermelon 100% failure, only one sprouted very late, and no fruit. Cantaloupe is bland this year. I blame the Canadians.

Reading in the local Ag newspaper, Illinois Agrinews, average corn yields in McLean County Illinois (prime corn land) are expected to average 233 bushels/acre (15.7 tonnes/hectare). That's simply amazing.

Me, with my organic methods, no chemical weed, insect or fungal controls and using open-pollinated seed, hope to get 60 bushels/acre (4 tonnes/hectare). The last two years I got 59 both years.

By historical averages I am doing much better than pre-modern standards. Averages across the US before modern agriculture started in the 1930s was 30 bushels/acre, but I am in the corn belt and that number was nation-wide including much poorer land and climate areas.

I would dearly love to do a side-by-side comparison of my corn and modern hybrid seed under equal conditions, both in a high-input field and also in my organic plot. Maybe next spring...

Thom Bri wrote:Not 3 sisters related, but for years I have been collecting plastic containers that had plants in them. I never re-used them and I hardly ever start plants early and transplant.
Something happened in my brain this spring and now I have more seeds in pots than I have places to put them. The peppers pretty much ALL sprouted, three egg cartons worth. A dozen have been moved to pots.
Today I made a dozen more filled with several varieties of cantaloupes. Some seeds are fairly old, 2020, so I put lots of seeds in each little pot, hoping one or two will sprout. If many do I'll pinch the poorer-looking ones.

Next step is to figure out where to plant all these plants, assuming they grow.

Hi Thom
How did the 3 sisters go this year?

Lisa Sture wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:Not 3 sisters related, but for years I have been collecting plastic containers that had plants in them. I never re-used them and I hardly ever start plants early and transplant.
Something happened in my brain this spring and now I have more seeds in pots than I have places to put them. The peppers pretty much ALL sprouted, three egg cartons worth. A dozen have been moved to pots.
Today I made a dozen more filled with several varieties of cantaloupes. Some seeds are fairly old, 2020, so I put lots of seeds in each little pot, hoping one or two will sprout. If many do I'll pinch the poorer-looking ones.

Next step is to figure out where to plant all these plants, assuming they grow.

Hi Thom
How did the 3 sisters go this year?

Pretty well. I put a long post about that yesterday, scroll up to page 4.

An interesting article about ancient corn growing in Canada, with corn traded to the sub-arctic! There is a great pic of how corn was dried in old times. Temps were a lot warmer then than later during the Euro invasion period when it was very cold. Modern temps are similar to the earlier warmer period.

NORTHERNMOST PRECONTACT MAIZE IN NORTH AMERICA
https://www.lakeheadu.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/53/outlines/2014-15/NECU5311/Boyd%202.pdf

If the link doesn't work, go to Google Scholar and put in the title, it will pop right up.

Another failure, glass gem corn. Pollinated very poorly. Plants appeared healthy but it was very late and slow to pollinate, much later than the other corn mostly. Many of the plants produced 5 or more 'ears' none of which were much good. Some of it is still green when all the other corn has been harvested. I'll post pics, maybe tomorrow.

Good things about the glass gem, it was quite resistant to bird damage again this year. I saw signs that birds pecked the ears but gave up. Maybe the husks are too thick and tough? Also mold damage low again this year. But there was more ear worm damage this year than last year.

Thinking about adding some popcorn in next spring. Popcorn is an extreme flint type corn. So extreme that it often germinates poorly. Hoping to gradually reduce the dent and sweet corn genetics and increase the flint. Saw some purple popcorn in the market recently. Might be fun to plant a few hills and see how it grows.

This year's glass gem, along with a bundle from last year, on the lower right. Last year a lot of 4-5 inch ears, often with several ears per plant. This year they are smaller, mostly, and poorly pollinated, with the secondary ears very poor. There should be 80+ ears but what you see is what I got. There are a few still green in the field.

The second pic is what I believe to be glass gem crosses from last year and earlier. There were a lot of these; this is just what I had handy today.