I read about the Mayan method of growing the “Three Sisters” that combines corn, squash and beans in the same bed. The gardener grows squash among their corn and once the corn is a foot high sows four bean seeds around each stalk. The method was highly recommended, even used as a recent Jeopardy! clue, so I tried it.
The first year my beans overwhelmed the corn patch and pulled down the stalks, so the next year I switched back to using a trellis to support the beans. The vining squash seemed to keep out raccoons, so I continued planting one at each end of the bed and one in the middle, encouraging the vines to meander around and among the corn. My corn ears were small, six inches or shorter, but I thought that might be because I used the Bantam variety.
Last year I didn’t get the squash planted in time and raccoons ate every cob on the stalks, so this year I tried a little experiment. In one corn bed I put vining squash at both ends and two more in the middle before I planted the corn. In the next I sowed the corn first and when they were a few inches high I transplanted squash seedlings and in the third bed I sowed corn seeds and squash seeds at the same time. This might be a good time to mention how much we like our corn.
I was mightily disappointed with the first bed, where the vining squash I had encouraged to wind around and among the corn grew abundantly, but the corn did not; it looks like the squash choked out the corn. On top of that, quite literally, the squash have producing large fruit that are squashing the soaker hose, which may be where the name comes from. This leaves me wondering if the reason my corn crops in previous years were so disappointing had more to do with the squash roots robbing nutrients from the companion plants than anything else.
So far the second and third beds look fine, but now I wonder how well the corn would grow if I encouraged the squash to meander down a path outside of the corn rather than in the bed itself. Where the squash plants begin they take up about four square feet before branching out, with vines about 10 feet long. If I planted one at both ends of the 60 foot bed and one more halfway down, allowing the vines to spread out only in the paths, that would leave 48 feet for corn.
Also, having seen how large squash have damaged the soaker hoses with their weight, I’ll plant a smaller fruiting acorn squash that sends out vines. The zucchini squash is also interfering with the hoses where I sowed them at the beginnings of the rows, so next year I’ll plant them at the far end of the hose where the zucchini won’t interfere with watering the rest of the bed. I’ll just have to make a point of visiting them every day on my way to the tomato patch.
I could grow pumpkins as well, but one plant provides enough for us and our kids. Besides, I doubt the Mayans celebrated Thanksgiving; as native Americans they would probably call it Thankstaking.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.
