Three Sisters Garden year 3, 2025

I harvested two sweet corns today, 65 days from planting to harvest thanks to warm soil. After eating, I cut up the hulls and cobs to put back as mulch. In a week I am going to plant daikon and cabbage seeds under the canopy of the flour corns.

Those corn plants with presumably calcium deficiency,  although the cobs are fine, their leaves and stalks have less mechanical strength. In a healthy corn plant, the shank should stick out at an angle and the stalk remains straight, isn't it?

Glad corn is being successfully harvested.  My favas are ready, but I'm letting them dry on the stalk so I know "for sure" that they're really ready.  And I have two sweet lil' pumpkins growing and hopefully many more on their way.  Maybe if I end up with some corn seed I'll try 3 sisters next year.

A selection of cantaloupes. After last year's near-complete bust, I am happy to be having a good year! Last year I barely got enough to save seeds, and the melons were small and not sweet, almost bitter. Weather problems? This year has been dry and hot. Ideal for sweet melons.
My melons are a mix. All from saved seeds. The first is an 'heirloom giant Texas melon'. It can get over 15 lbs. This one is big, almost a foot long and still growing. But the skin looks different from prior years, so it has probably crossed with my other melons.

cantaloupes!

Lots of corn smut this year. It seems to be mostly in the ear. I break them off and throw them outside the plot. I doubt it helps much.
And no, I am not going to eat them!

Birds eating my corn. I put the plastic bottles over the ear if I notice bird damage. I have also tried wrapping the ear tips in large leaves, sunflower or tobacco or burr dock.

Nice rain today! First rain since July 31 when we got 2/10".
Corn starting to dry down. Very uneven pollination, some stalks are just now pollinating and others already maturing.

2 and 6/10 inches of rain this week. Everything is green again.
The harvest today. 40+ ears of sweet corn, beans, and zucchini. Most of the sweet corn is from the mini corn. I am getting up to 3 ears, and may get more from some plants if the later ears pollinate and ripen. This year the 'mini' ears are not as small as in prior years, but the plants remain quite short. The reddish ears are not as sweet, and come off a different type of stalk, taller and with fewer tillers. My wife doesn't like them as well.

Picked 4 ears of corn. Here are three. It is past the dough stage and getting hard. So in theory I could harvest it now. But it would need a lot of drying down and would lose a bit of final production, so I will wait for it to dry down more in the field. These ears are all about 9 inches now, but will lose an inch or even more drying down. But pretty good ears!

Fortunately this year bird damage is much less than prior years. Not sure why that is. 3 theories. One is just random luck. Some years are just worse than others for unknown reasons. Second possibility is death of the matriarch who knew where my plot is and liked my corn, so the blackbird flock is going elsewhere this year. Third speculation is genetics. I have made an effort to eliminate sweet corn genes from this corn. In the past I planted them next to each other so there was always a lot of sweet corn mixed in, so predators liked the soft, sweet kernels. This year there should be very little, though I do have a few plants I suspect may be sweet corn in this plot.

Thom Bri wrote:Birds eating my corn. I put the plastic bottles over the ear if I notice bird damage. I have also tried wrapping the ear tips in large leaves, sunflower or tobacco or burr dock.

Neat! Crows did a huge amount of damage to my second year of corn, so I started feeding peanuts to the bluejays, to keep them close and they ran the crows off. Crows are so charming, that I do miss them, but I need my corn harvest.

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:Birds eating my corn. I put the plastic bottles over the ear if I notice bird damage. I have also tried wrapping the ear tips in large leaves, sunflower or tobacco or burr dock.

Neat! Crows did a huge amount of damage to my second year of corn, so I started feeding peanuts to the bluejays, to keep them close and they ran the crows off. Crows are so charming, that I do miss them, but I need my corn harvest.

Funny. But the drink bottles are free and I love peanuts too much to share with birds.
I am not sure what birds are doing the damage. I have looked for years and have NEVER seen birds actually on the corn. It might be crows or blackbirds. Racoons take down a few ears, and this year deer ate a few.

The bottles work very well, and also seem to prevent most bug damage. Bugs do most of the damage after birds open the tips, so preventing that is very useful. Even the damaged corn doesn't get bugs in the bottle in on top. The leaf wrap works very well too.

Corn pulled down by beans and squash vines. It's annoying because it makes it harder to harvest the ears later, and also hard to walk around in the garden. But it doesn't really hurt production all that much, or so I believe. I haven't measured it, but the stalks pulled down seem to have good ears of corn, so I don't worry about it. The corn is already done pollinating by the time the beans overgrow it and most of the production is already baked in. Probably some loss due to light competition from the beans and squash.

Some good ears, and a view down a row:

Picked 13 ears today. They look about the same as the earlier pic, don't they? But these were all from glass gem crosses from last year. I am surprised not to see more glass gem characteristics. I planted one whole row of the glass gem, right down the middle of the plot. Hoping to add in some new genetics. It seems to be working.

I counted how many ears have bird damage. 5 of 19, so 26% of ears picked so far. And I have cut out at least a dozen smutty ears. Add in some lost to racoons and deer and it looks like a lot of potential losses.  In most cases just the tip end was damaged, but in wet years it leads to lots of losses to mold. This year I see hardly any losses to earworms.

Still getting some sweet corn genetics in my corn. This is the second year of trying to eliminate it. I want it out because it attracts all kinds of herbivores, mammals, birds and insects.
Pic shows an ear picked today. Most of the kernels are flint, but I can see 3 sweet corn kernels in this pic.

A note of caution. I am an RN. A few weeks ago I had a mystery patient. 'Altered mental status' was the general diagnosis, since the doctors could not figure out why an apparently healthy person suddenly couldn't walk or talk. After an amazingly long battery of tests, the diagnosis became West Nile Virus. The patient had been bitten by a mosquito! 2 weeks later I am not seeing much improvement, though the doctors are hopeful.

Since then I may be slightly overdosing myself with mosquito repellent. Tick and mosquito-borne diseases terrify me.

Questions about when to harvest. When I read about old native Americans harvesting, it seems they harvested a lot of their corn very early, in the dough stage. I wondered why they did that since it reduces the total harvest possible. I have come up with several reasons:
1. The dried dough stage corn can be reconstituted quickly and easily in boiling
water, making a rich stew similar to creamed corn. It was a cultural thing, they liked the taste.
2. Reduction in losses. When I think about my bird, racoon, deer, insect and mold damage, harvesting early makes sense. You don't risk all the late-season losses. My early harvested corn rarely has much insect or mold damage, but there can be a lot in late harvested.
Some pics showing corn ready for an early harvest. If the outside husks are drying, you can harvest.

Some of the ears picked today. I am harvesting any that appear damaged, if they are far enough along.
The 4 ears on the left are all from one plant! From a single seed. It had several tillers 2 of which made good ears. The two biggest ears were on the main stalk.
The ear on the farthest right appears to be sweet corn.
The fat yellow ear is, I suspect, a cross of the hybrid corn that was growing next to my corn last year. The stalk was thick and all green, and the husks are like cabbage texture, like the hybrids. The cob is red, like the hybrids.

The flash drought is showing up in my area and the 3 sister garden has come to an end. This is one of Martian Jewels cobs. Are the translucent kernels from cross pollination with the sweet corns?

May Lotito wrote:The flash drought is showing up in my area and the 3 sister garden has come to an end. This is one of Martian Jewels cobs. Are the translucent kernels from cross pollination with the sweet corns?

That ear is almost entirely sweet corn. All the wrinkled seeds are sweet corn. The smooth-topped seeds, white and yellow glossy seeds, are not.

Well, you might think this corn isn't much to look at, but for all it endured to produce a harvest, I'm pretty happy. The plants were healthy & had clear variability in color, aerial roots, cob type, row count, pollination time, & kernal color. The poor pollination was mainly due to sparse planting distances. I could definitely see the glass gem influence in some kernels, & while there are some sweet corn kernels mixed in, the rest are a nice smooth flinty type. The long skinny yellow cob I really like for some reason. It's only 8 row, but seems to have met its potential. I will save the best flinty seeds.

Cy Cobb wrote:Well, you might think this corn isn't much to look at, but for all it endured to produce a harvest, I'm pretty happy. The plants were healthy & had clear variability in color, aerial roots, cob type, row count, pollination time, & kernal color. The poor pollination was mainly due to sparse planting distances. I could definitely see the glass gem influence in some kernels, & while there are some sweet corn kernels mixed in, the rest are a nice smooth flinty type. The long skinny yellow cob I really like for ome reason. It's only 8 row, but seems to have met its potential. I will save the best flinty seeds.

When everything was against it, it still gave back a little. This was a hard year. Those are probably the toughest, most resilient ones. Give them a little TLC next year! I'll send you some more seeds after this harvest.

It's cantaloupe season! I picked several yesterday and several more today. So happy and the flavor is good. I was out there 3 days ago and saw some that looked ALMOST ready to pick. When I went back yesterday 2 had already been destroyed by bugs, and two more were being attacked. Fortunately I found several more ready to pick.

Here is my cantaloupe and squash field. I have to wade through that mess trying not to step on vines and fruit. Not ideal but still getting plenty of fruit in spite of the competition. First time I have tried growing like this. In the past I have grown melons and squash on my lawn grass and it went very well. And I have noticed that they grew very well out into the grassy areas around the edges of the garden, so I figured to give it a try. I kept the weeds down around the young plants but gave up when I got busy at work. But it seems to be working out Okay.

Various cantaloupes. The big one is over 10 inches long.
The round, smooth ones look like honeydew but I have never planted honeydew. Don't much like them. A few years ago I was given some Japanese melons seeds that looked like regular netted cantaloupe, but tasted more like honeydew. I wonder if these are not some weird crossbred from that?

And MORE!

Back to corn. Here are the ears I have selected so far for possible use as seed for next year. All of these ears are at least 8 inches (20 cm) long. The longest is 11 inches (29 cm).
Primary criterium is zero mold damage. I am more than a little obsessive about keeping moldy corn out of my diet. Loads of toxins in corn molds that cause cancer and all kinds of diseases. If I pick an ear and find mold I pitch that ear unless it's just a few seeds that can be pried out. More than a tiny bit of bird or insect damage is also out for seed corn.
I also consider length of ear, and fully pollinated to the tip, and color of seeds, cob and husk.

I gave about 20 lbs of corn to a Nigerian friend who was complaining she couldn't find good corn to cook traditional foods for her family.
Apparently she gave some to a friend who is going back to Nigeria, who plans to plant it there! My corn has already been to Japan and back to the States, now Africa! I warned her it might not grow well considering the different climate and latitude. We shall see. I wonder what the rules are in Nigeria for importing seeds.

Thom Bri wrote:
When everything was against it, it still gave back a little. This was a hard year. Those are probably the toughest, most resilient ones. Give them a little TLC next year! I'll send you some more seeds after this harvest.

Thanks! Your seed selection ears are looking great! Some of mine still had moisture in the cobs which is why they dried a bit crooked. I made the decision to harvest the last of them now because I noticed some bird damage & a bit of white mold. I had no ear worm damage at all though, which is a first for me! In most years, I'd lose the tip of almost every cob to them.

Cy Cobb wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:
When everything was against it, it still gave back a little. This was a hard year. Those are probably the toughest, most resilient ones. Give them a little TLC next year! I'll send you some more seeds after this harvest.

Thanks! Your seed selection ears are looking great! Some of mine still had moisture in the cobs which is why they dried a bit crooked. I made the decision to harvest the last of them now because I noticed some bird damage & a bit of white mold. I had no ear worm damage at all though, which is a first for me! In most years, I'd lose the tip of almost every cob to them.

Starting to see some ear worms now in the tips. Not as bad as some years. I was reading last night some research papers and one mentioned how the first generation mostly eats leaves but the second generation attacks stalks and ears. One more reason to pick them a bit early.

Typical bright yellow hybrid ear, harvested from the edge of a neighbor's corn field, a bit smaller than average. The ears surrounding it show degrees of crossing with my corn. It makes excellent crosses, much more robust than either parent.

Range of types I am getting. The ears of the left with lots of yellow, white, and gray seeds look like what I started with in the 1990s. I saw a few red/purple stalks and selected for that just because I liked the color.
As for size, the small one is typical of nubbin ears, and small ears are about a quarter of all ears. The 4 mid-sized ears are pretty average. The large ears on the right are maybe another quarter.
Harvesting is moving along, over half done. I pick as I see leaves drying. Some is still very green.

A box of nubs and misshapen ears. Get lots of these. Usually post pics of nice, beautiful ears. Don't want to give the impression it's all like that.

Drying in the sunshine. It's been a very good year for dry-down. Last year I had it all laid out in the garage with fans blowing on it trying to keep the mold from growing. It was warm and very humid with lots of fall rain. This year is fairly dry.
What's showing is about half the harvest to date. The first half is already bundled and hanging in the basement. I have a dehumidifier set really low to speed dry-down, and also had a fan blowing for a few days.
And an accidental selfie.

I have next year's corn seeds ready. Quite a colorful selection thanks to a permie friend! Also I am going to challenge the 270-day giant Inca maize. Wish me luck.

May Lotito wrote:I have next year's corn seeds ready. Quite a colorful selection thanks to a permie friend! Also I am going to challenge the 270-day giant Inca maize. Wish me luck.

Pretty! I don't have any named varieties in my corn except glass gem. I'll have to think up a fancy name for my corn.

Today I bought four 5-gallon buckets with lids to hold my crop. Last year I put it all in 2 totes, and it turns out one tote doesn't have a tight enough lid. So one has bugs growing and one doesn't. Hoping the buckets work better. Plus the buckets will be easier to move around. The totes hold about 100 lbs of corn each.

May Lotito wrote:I have next year's corn seeds ready. Quite a colorful selection thanks to a permie friend! Also I am going to challenge the 270-day giant Inca maize. Wish me luck.

Are you going to try sprouting the Inca corn early, indoors or in some kind of warming bed? I have read about that being done with corn but where I am it's not normally necessary.

I plan on amending an area specifically for the Inca corn, building richer soil and having more microbial activity so that soil will warm up early in Spring. Seeds will be planted in the first week of April to stretch for a 210 day season. My summer is a lot hotter and sunnier than mountainous Andes so that will make the corns grow faster too. I will try some tricks to shorten the vegetative stage too, I had success with my sunflower this year. Other corns will be stagger planted so some can get pollinated by the Inca maize and have fun hybrid seeds.

Glad the corn went mostly well, what about the other sisters?

Riona Abhainn wrote:Glad the corn went mostly well, what about the other sisters?

Some good, some poor. I grow lots of different plants in the '3' sisters garden.

The squash was destroyed by squash bugs. I got a few small fruits pulled off dead vines. They are ripening now so no idea if they will be any good.

The beans are going crazy this year. Far more than we can eat. My job for tonight is to shell the older beans to cook and freeze tomorrow. I could pick a lot more but my wife is like 'Stop bring in so many vegetables!'. The soy is also growing very well this year. We eat it green, Japanese-style.

I usually get lots and lots of tomatoes off the volunteer plants. This year just a few. Very few sprouted, and they were very slow to grow and make fruit.

Cantaloupes doing well. Have eaten a few and there are a bunch ripening. Hoping for some warm, sunny weather. Funny thing, now that the squash are all dead, the squash bugs have moved to the cantaloupes. Some leaves have large masses of squash bugs on them. I have occasionally seen a few squash bugs on cantaloupes, but never masses of them. I think they are desperate and they don't seem to be hurting the plants much.

Tobacco is doing Okay, but not flowering yet, which is strange.

Okra is like tomatoes, producing a little but not like some years.

Marigolds are doing great! They really grew well this year and are showing up in new sections of the garden. I will spread the seeds out again this fall in hopes of more next year.

Sunflowers growing well, as normal.

All in all a very strange, but not too bad year. Very dry, cool spring which delayed germination and slowed growth, then very good weather and rain in July. The corn compensated but some of the other crops did not. I suspect the squash bugs were so bad partially because the squash plants were not robust due to the weather.