Three Sisters Year 4

The garden as a whole. You can see the weaker area to the left.

Sweet corn finally catching up. A few of the very early variety are tasseling, even though only about 2 feet tall. That's fine. That variety makes lots of tiny, very good little ears.
As you can see, it is well-guarded.

I tried different beans in the polyculture with corns.
1. Climbing indeterminate kidney beans + tall corns planted the same time in Mid April. More yard long beans planted later on.
2. Determinate edamame with short early corns.
3. Chickpeas as ground cover for late planted corns in hot weather.
They all work out fine except for short corns+ climbing beans. I just harvested some ears for sweet corns as the plants are swallowed by the vines.

May, love your mix of plants! It's pretty.
You lose some corn production this way, but gain in other ways.

Some companion plants.

Best corn is about 6 feet tall now and I noticed tassels today. Planted 5/9/26, that makes 55 days exactly. Right on with last year in spite of very different weather. My tallest corn is taller than the commercial hybrid corn planted about the same time, but the average is about the same. Open pollinated corn is highly variable. Also, quite a few hills were replanted so they are delayed, and I have my primary seed, which is proven reliable, and also 3 different commercial open pollinated varieties and one more variety I saved from prior years.

Maize Morado
Mountain Morado
Dakota Black
Glass Gem
My corn. I need to think up a cool name for my corn.

I can count on and predict what my corn will do, but all the others, who knows? I may end up with a couple of useless rows with no production. Last year my Glass Gem failed, even though it had been very good in prior years. I think next year I will plant mostly my own seed rather than unknowns.

Mountain Morado. Already setting ears.

More companions:

I planted a few radishes, on the theory that the scent would dissuade squash bugs and vine borers. I have killed a few squash bugs so far but not many, yet. Unfortunately seeds are expensive so I didn't plant nearly as many radishes as I had wanted to. But I have lots of various random brassicas that I have planted over the years in my back yard garden. They come up and we eat a few of the leaves and they go to seed. I don't bother planting more and I don't remember what exactly they are.

Right now the earliest of those are going to seed. So I cut a bunch of the seed heads and took them to the 3-sisters garden and scattered them around. I expect a lot of them to grow and by next year they will be an established, permanent part of the garden flora.

Some still kind of green so as they dry I'll kick them around to spread the seeds. And, lots more will be making seeds over the summer so I'll keep doing this until late fall.

Just a nice flower pic. Spotted this the other day between the corn hills. Nothing I have planted there, but I do have it at home. I assume the seeds got mixed in with the zinnia and marigold seeds I collected last fall, and it got here by accident when I scattered the seeds. Anyway, I like it and will let it go to seed.
French Hollyhock, a type of mallow:

The row of Mountain Morado. It looks pretty lame. Next year I am skipping all the experimental varieties and planting my own corn. One goal of this garden is to test if production gradually drops off if corn is planted year after year using the old Indian methods. I can't get good data if I play around with other factors at the same time.

A little friend on my pumpkin. I wonder what sort of bug it will turn in to.

Deer bit it right in half!

Picking beans and killing squash bugs today. Temp low 90s.
I found where the squash bugs hide in hot weather. They cluster right at the base of the squash vine where the vine enters the dirt. I was just messing around and happened to move some mulch from around a vine and there was a cluster of them. So I went along the row looking at the squash bases and there were clusters of bugs at most of them. Lots of bugs. Much easier than finding them one at a time by looking under the leaves.

In my other garden, (the more conventional one, non-organic), early in the spring and several times since them I have treated the vines at the bases. Very few squash bugs on those vines and very few egg masses. I believe that possibly treating only the bases, a few inches right where they protrude from the soil, might be a useful thing. Now to figure out a good plant extract that repels squash bugs. I have some saved tobacco leaves and may try that. Or radish.

Found squash bug eggs on soy and bean leaves today. Quite a lot.

Thom Bri wrote: One goal of this garden is to test if production gradually drops off if corn is planted year after year using the old Indian methods.

The black soil of corn belt is the most fertile soil in the world and the three-sister method makes balanced use of soil minerals. There are C3 vs C4 plants, nitrogen fixer vs non-fixer and different root structures. Their nutritional needs are complementary so it will take you quite awhile to run short.  In my personal experience, brassicas sowed in Mid summer can be an early indicator if soil fertility drops. Daikon radish with deep tap root is more sensitive than arugula with a more fibrous root system.  The seedlings would germinate normally but fail to past first true leaf stage. If you want to give it a test, just broadcast some seeeds under the canopy of squashes in the first week of August.

May Lotito wrote:

Thom Bri wrote: One goal of this garden is to test if production gradually drops off if corn is planted year after year using the old Indian methods.

The black soil of corn belt is the most fertile soil in the world and the three-sister method makes balanced use of soil minerals. There are C3 vs C4 plants, nitrogen fixer vs non-fixer and different root structures. Their nutritional needs are complementary so it will take you quite awhile to run short.  In my personal experience, brassicas sowed in Mid summer can be an early indicator if soil fertility drops. Daikon radish with deep tap root is more sensitive than arugula with a more fibrous root system.  The seedlings would germinate normally but fail to past first true leaf stage. If you want to give it a test, just broadcast some seeeds under the canopy of squashes in the first week of August.

This garden has very little black soil. One row along the south edge and a few spots on the other edges. Not surprisingly these areas always look great. Most of the garden is clay dug up years ago when we buried an old barn that blew down, and one corner was part of a gravel drive and is a thin layer of black soil over crushed rock. I can't get a shovel down more than a few inches due to the rocks. But with mounding the corn has about a foot of dirt so the corn does Okay there too.

Re brassicas. I have been spreading fresh seeds this summer. The radish seeds I spread in the spring did well. Hoping for a good rain to see if the new seeds sprout. These are all sorts of mixed seeds, whatever is going to seed in my home garden.

Corn starting to look pretty good. Most is tasseling and some silks showing. Happy so far. Looking forward to some rain by week's end. Starting to pick beans every few days. In a week there will be too many to keep up with.

Being up north, I’m behind everyone but working to catch up! Squash seeds have been in the ground for 5-6 days but I saw no sign of their leaves yet.

Christopher Weeks wrote:Being up north, I’m behind everyone but working to catch up! Squash seeds have been in the ground for 5-6 days but I saw no sign of their leaves yet.

What kind of squash?
Those lambsquarters are stealing all the nitrogen!

Thom Bri wrote:What kind of squash?

I planted two kinds in each hole: 1) seed from the longest-keeping maxima that I grew three years ago. It was a mottled beige flat pumpkin-shaped thing with some warts but not complete coverage and 2) some hulless green seed from (I think) a Mexican vining pepo.

Those lambsquarters are stealing all the nitrogen!

Then the corn better learn how to get some from the air! (And also, in a couple of weeks, I'll harvest the majority of the lambsquarters for the greens.)

My giant Inca maize /choclo grow multiple rings of air roots while other varieties tend to have fewer row of brace roots. Lots of mucilage dripping at the tips after a storm but dry out in between. If there are nitrogen fixing bacteria, they would be less effective compared to those grown in the tropical region with frequent rainfall. Nevertheless, these Inca corns are robust. Some already have ears maturing and some still keep on growing.

May Lotito wrote:My giant Inca maize /choclo grow multiple rings of air roots while other varieties tend to have fewer row of brace roots. Lots of mucilage dripping at the tips after a storm but dry out in between. If there are nitrogen fixing bacteria, they would be less effective compared to those grown in the tropical region with frequent rainfall. Nevertheless, these Inca corns are robust. Some already have ears maturing and some still keep on growing.

Brace roots is a highly variable trait in my corn. Some years lots in multiple rows, other years hardly any. Genetic or environmental? Probably both. Some produce lots of mucilage. Heading to the farm soon and will take a look, but have not really noticed any brace roots this year so far.

Some Maxima squash, Red Kuri:

Kabocha squash, two types:

Brace roots. Very dry recently, not seeing any mucous. Most of the brace roots are buried when I mound up the hills.

Dug potatoes today from between the corn hills. Very convenient system. The dirt goes on top the corn hills just when it is needed most, mid-July when it is hot and dry. Last rain was July 5th, and temps in the 90s, so things are getting dry. So far, the corn looks good, no rolled leaves. Pollination in full swing.
Pic shows hilled corn with fresh dirt on top:

First corn picked this year. Mountain Morado. Planted 5/9/26. 71 days. The corn is still in the dough stage so can be harvested but still pretty early. I picked them because the plant was damaged by deer and bugs.

Sweet corn silks browning. A week? No more than that.
Tomatoes reddening, a day or two. Beans being picked daily.
Zucchinis appearing. Only one plant is making zucchinis yet. Hoping for a few more. But the squash bugs are hitting them hard.
Losing a squash vine or two every day I visit the garden. Vine borers. I doubt I will get any squash from the 3 sisters garden.

Some sisters growing with the corn. Lots of flowers recently. And the radishes are going to seed; hope to collect a lot of fresh seeds from them. I was surprised it grew, no idea how many years old the seeds were, but many:

Lots of beans now.

Friend on the squash leaf:

Low rainfall in July, 1 and 1/10 inches. Pollination mostly appears Okay, though I am worried about the sweet corn. The pictured corn is a new variety I am trying this year. It is supposed to be a black popcorn. We will see. It does not appear to be tolerating the dry conditions as well as any of the other varieties.

I have posted several pics of the Mountain Morado, noting how puny it is. I also planted half a row of Maize Morado, also from Baker Creek. It has responded completely differently, even though they are supposed to be almost the same varieties, from the same original source.

It is completely green, no purple coloration. I wonder how the seeds will look. They are supposed to be very dark purple. It is tall, some of the plants around 9 feet (about 3 meters). It appears sturdy. In timing it is slightly behind my own purple corn. It is starting to pollinate now while the purple corn started tasseling early in July. Some of the purple corn is still pollinating so I am hoping for some crossing. I shake the purple tassels over the silks to encourage cross pollination. I will replant some of this seed next year, assuming I get anything.

Sort of unrelated, but I keep honey bees next to my gardens. The pic below is a swarm trap I put up this spring, basically just a normal beehive without any bees in it, hoping a swarm would move in. A few days ago I noticed a dozen bees acting crazy at the entrance, buzzing madly while just hovering.

Suspecting a swarm might want to move in, I walked over to take a closer look. I saw the bees at war with a hive of large ants who had moved into the trap. The ants would rush any bee that attempted to enter and push it back out. I opened the trap and dumped the ants out. Immediately the bees started going in and out of the trap.

Today I inspected the hive again, opened the top for a quick look. A swarm has moved in! Very happy. This is only the second swarm I have caught since 2019. My other bees are all descended from a single queen trapped in 2019, so I am happy to get some new bees.

Sweet corn coming along. Still a few days away. Picked one today. Really looking forward to eating my mini corn. It's been so good the last few years.

The fields around my gardens. One pic shows the standard hybrid corn planted about the same time as my corn. Close enough there is always some cross pollination. It looks really good, and appears to have pollinated well in spite of the dry weather. Modern varieties are extremely tough compared to the old open-pollinated varieties. If you don't mind the GMOs then they do very well in the garden even with no chemical inputs. I have grown them side-by-side with my corn several times and they always do well, and they do well in crosses too. In recent years I have tried to limit crossing with these, but there is always some.

Second pic is the hay field. That is alfalfa in bloom. Very pretty scene with a whole field of it, can't really capture it with a camera.

My purple corn. You can see where a bird pecked it but gave up. Fortunately this year very minor and minimal bird damage. I have not put the plastic drink bottle covers yet but will soon.

Another example of bird damage. Crow I think, from the large size of the gash. This ear was lying on the ground half opened. Fortunately it was too young and the bird gave up. If it had gotten a good meal it would have come back every day for another, and brought all its friends.

All the mountain morado. I'll probably plant one hill of it next spring just for genetic variety. Oddly, some of the kernels look to be sweet corn. Makes me wonder about how well it was isolated when they made the seed. No more purple than my own corn though.

I am afraid the Inca giant corns are a bust this year. They all tasseled for over a week but there is no silk emerging. I cut one down, stripped the leaves and found nothing inside the sheath on every node. I guess there is something special about the sacred valley of Peru where they are grown for generations.

Other tall and short corns are doing well with their companies.

May Lotito wrote:I am afraid the Inca giant corns are a bust this year. They all tasseled for over a week but there is no silk emerging. I cut one down, stripped the leaves and found nothing inside the sheath on every node. I guess there is something special about the sacred valley of Peru where they are grown for generations.

Other tall and short corns are doing well with their companies.

I am afraid my tall Inca corns are the same, but have not opened any to check. They are still trying to pollinate so may possibly get something. There are other still pollinating varieties nearby so I think there is some chance. Some of the very tall stalks have no ear yet at all, a few are silking.

I suspect latitudinal sensitivity. Many tropical corn varieties have trouble at higher latitudes.

And it may just be a much longer season corn and if we had a whole field of it to pollinate each other would do fine. I don't have enough seed to be able to try that.