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.

Sweetness genes in sweet corn are recessive.
https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/sweet-corn-production.html

That means that if I see a few sweet corn seeds in an otherwise normal ear, that ear's parent plant was carrying (at least) one sweetness gene and one normal gene. All the seeds on that ear, even if they appear normal, have a 50/50 chance of carrying a sweetness gene.

So since I am trying to eliminate the sweet trait from my flint corn, I should not use any ear for seed that has even one sweet seed on it. This explains why I am having trouble getting rid of sweet trait. Lots of my ears have some sweet seeds, including many of the very best ears. For many years I planted the two types of corn side by side, and they thoroughly crossed.

Getting to seed saving season. So far have several varieties of muskmelon, squash, a couple varieties of beans and corn.

Below is a pic of my saved sweet corn seed. This is a mix of my flint corn plus many different varieties of sweet corn seed I have bought over the years. Last year and this year I did not add any commercial sweet corn seed to the mix. I ate most main and the secondary ears. Saved seeds are from the tiny nubbin ears that were left. This is far more seeds than I will need.

A surprise win! I wasn't expecting much from this cantaloupe. Most of the smooth, green ones have very pale, sweet flesh like a honeydew, but this one is excellent. The flesh is firm but not too hard, with good taste and sweetness. The rind is very thin.

For years I have been saving seeds and growing a very good cantaloupe that is rugby-ball-shaped, with smooth skin and not much netting. This is an extreme version. Definitely saving seeds!

Picking and shelling lots of beans the last few days. It's been a very good year for beans. Some years September is very wet and humid, and lots of beans rot in the pods. Not this year.

But I got to thinking about the logic of the 3 sisters. Beans don't need to climb to make lots of beans; they grow perfectly well running along the ground. But, beans growing along the ground tend to get damp and rot easily. So the purpose of growing climbing beans with corn isn't to give the beans a place to grow. It's to prevent losses before harvest. Plus, harvesting beans at head height is a lot easier than bending down and picking them off the ground.

Beans climbing

Post corn harvest. Still lots of beans and tomatoes.

Shelling beans all week. It's slow work, but relaxing and I can sit and read at the same time.

About 3/4 are the tan, flat ones, with a mix of whatever else. The red, black, and white ones are standard supermarket beans, Kidney, Great Northern, and Black Beans. The brown ones and the black or brown speckled ones just showed up. Crosses of some sort I suppose.

Any idea what kind of bean this is?
Various degrees of drying beans.

Squash was a total bust in the 3-sisters garden. I got one immature Kabocha and a couple zucchinis before the squash bugs eliminated them all. This pic is from a small non-organic garden nearby. Sad. Hope to try again next spring. I'd sure like some tips on how to grow squash without insecticides!

Another new bean. These appeared suddenly a year or 2 years ago. They appear to be a cross or mutation of the purple beans I have been growing forever. Pic shows fresh purple shell and when dried has no color. Original bean was tan.