Planting Corn, Squash and Beans Using The Three Sisters Method 

I agree with you about the three sisters, although I have come up with a method of planting that ensures that you never have to water or fertilize throughout the growing season. Take four straw bales placed on their side and formed into a square interlocked. This will allow you a square in the center that you fill with good rich compost right to the top of the bales. You then plant your corn in the center of the square, once you see the corn emerge, you lpant the beans around the corn, then at the corners you plant the squash. The bales will absorb the rain, thereby allowing water for the plants, while the squash cascades over the bales shading them. The beans climb the corn, and the decomposing straw bales give nitrogen for the corn. Just another way to the same ends.Thank you

I never thought I would be learning from the Bloods on how to grow crops.

This is the traditional method the Ovawambo people from Namibia use to plant their crops. And its a method that's been used by our forefathers and their forefathers. We also add groundnuts, sorghum and millet in the mix. Its great learning the science behind their methods.

I have now organized my growing areas to be planted with 3 sisters PLUS jerusalem artichokes as a 4th, and maybe a couple of cousins. I loved this. It made me feel happy.

This brings a smile to my face.

Love this! But, one tip... in my experience, you can't use a "combination" of different corn plants, or they will cross pollinate, and you will end up with some strange corn cobs!

I am a descendant of chief Massasoit. My wife is a descendant of the pilgrims just used your video to explain the three sisters to her.

Companion gardening at its best in organic for life! Excellent video thank you

I love this video, but it needs to be noted that this method has been practiced for millennia, not centuries. Mesoamericans developed the strategy first, not unnecessarily as beans, squash, and maize maize originated there, and slowly moved north via trade and human expansion.

Greetings from Missouri! Fantastic three sisters tutorial. Will be implementing this method in our garden this year.

Excellent tutorial for a novice gardener like myself. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you i hope the best for you and your loved ones in these times we are in

THIS IS A TRADITIONAL FARMING METHOD IN SOUTH AFRICA. MY TSWANA GRANDPARENTS USED THIS METHOD OF FARMING AND ITS BEEN HANDED DOWN FROM ANCIENT GENERATIONS IN AFRICA, Love seeing this, my childhood food crops in one plate. 👌🏾

I know a gardener who use nasturtium around the edge of the 3 sisters as a fourth sister, put the flowers & tender leaves in salads & pickled the tenger seed pods, as poor man capers.

Good tips for formations and timings of planting the sisters. Excellent video, thank you!

I have always heard of the three sisters, and have always wanted to know how this works. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us, this will certainly help my spring planting, I am rather excited now armed with this knowledge. Thank you again

Love this...been wanting to try it for years and finally have land to do so now!

Best explanation EVER! Thank you ❤️

Amazing. Thank you from NZ. Gonna do it myself this spring=Sept here.

Great stuff, thanks for sharing. I’ve bookmarked this and set an alarm for late April.

Great method and video Thanks

thank you so much for doing this video and sharing it

thanks for your teachings.

this is great for my school work

Super helpful - thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge 🙏

Love it! I'm gonna try!

"This is a technique that has used for centuries." You mean millennia! Still a great video!

Very nice video I learned a lot I was raised around corn my family ran fields

Fascinating.

thanks. that was really useful. great video.

I have only a small garden at my apartment, and have been wondering for years if there was a planting method where I could combine some of my veggies into a smaller section of the plot. Thank you for the tips; I can't wait to try this come spring!

I am from the uk and I am going to try this method this season, corn just coming up and then when big enough I will do as you have do, my last frost is in the middle of May , not long now 😂

Very informative thank you.

Thanks. Showing the granddaughter the old ways best I can. She can't wait for her CDIB card.

Trying this at my garden this year. So far corn is up 😊

Don't matter who taught this first is if we leave it behind for the Next Generation to learn this is the first for all who come next....

@edmundo oliver ooh, maybe it's REALLY 10,005 years ago. LoL Not from you Sir, but from SO MANY in the comments section all I see are not picking complaints. Who CARES if it's centuries, millennia, or last year on granny's farm ? This woman is trying to teach something to you that you may not have known. If you don't agree then GO MAKE YOUR OWN video. She's not a telling you she's a PhD of history/archeology! She's simply telling you the way a tried and true method of gardening worked long ago. I've never seen such pettiness in all my life. Every one of you hating out there need to get a job or a life. To the woman who made the video, THANK YOU for the informative gardening lesson. I had not heard of these things and tend to believe our ancestors knew what they were doing or none of us would be here. So, thanks for taking the time to educate all who came here to learn. Have a great day.

Love this thank you so much.

I'll be trying this method out this year to grow corn. The main reason I became interested, is after noticing last year that the prickly pumpkin vines on the outside border of my garden stopped the deer from coming in and eating my plants. I will also be trying out a traditional appalachian pole bean variety called "Greasy Grits."

Great job. Thanks.

Really well made video

I saw this technique in Mexico, corn and beans and it works

Hi from South Wales uk. I’m going to try three sisters this year they are ready to go in yeee thanks for sharing. New friend here. Pop by and say hi thanks stay safe and god bless. Ange and the feathered ones x

Thanks so much

Thank you, gracia's...

Thxs for sharing. I am going to try this method of planting in my garden. 😊

Great technique usefull anywhere

This is the first time I have heard about the fourth sister

Can thank the Mesoamericans and Native Americans for this lol

Awesome thanks

Next year for sure, too late now and we have a short growing season up here in northern NM, where its Never 55 at night in the summer, hahaa. beautiful video and garden! waay to go kids!

I am going to try this on my property. We are high in the Sierras, growing is not easy here. Lots of acid trees. Snow possible in June and September. Hot and dry in the summer.

Very helpful video- about how many bean plants should be in each mound?

thank you

Good Video.

I've got two 3 Sisters gardens , one with flint corn and the other has peaches and cream corn in it plus sunflowers, pumpkins and butternut squash plus green and yellow pole beans and adzuki beans

Isn’t it wonderful how corn, and other native foods to northern and southern Aboriginal people of the Americas, have become so important around the world. Interesting how other native people from Namibia had similar planting techniques for their traditional foods as well. We are all connected.

Gonna try this next year, i bought all the seeds this year but waited too long to plant them 😣

greetings and success of farmers from South Sumatra Indonesia. 🇲🇨🇲🇨 May the farmers' crops be bountiful and the farmers will be blessed, will have an abundant age and health amen🤲🤲👩‍🌾👩‍🌾👩‍🌾👩‍🌾

thanks for the great video, how many beans per corn? 4 or 1?

We used to plant with all four sisters at the edge of the garden and other veggies mound together well too. Ours was just a bit different, we started with a fish head.

I may try this but my corn I just planted is in 8, 20’ double rows. I’ll plant some pink eye purple hull peas in a couple weeks then my zucchini squash after it sprouts good. 👨‍🌾🤞🏼

We do that in my country.

Does planting Red Amaranth in a cluster (3:05) produce more/better than a larger solo plant? Do you ever "top" the Amaranth and get an early leaf harvest to eat, if so, when?? I haven't really figured out how to best utilize it other than Microgreen seeds.

Hi, how big was the mound? If the 5 squash seeds are 18" apart, how big was the mound? I heard to make an 18" mound 4" deep, but that mound looks bigger than that

Nice

More people need to use banana, orange, lemon, pineapple, watermen's, squash, and other rinds or peels to use as organic compost along with different pollen plants around so they can get pollenated

Not really into annuals but I might actually give this a shot

I live in southeast Texas, zone 9a. Can I do this in August?

I have a couple plots in a community garden. Is the mound necessary?

I've got 3 sisters They topple each other, with envy Wish they were plants 😕😕

I love this idea, I’m about to transplant my corn and I have squash transplants but okra seeds that I want to plant together. Is that okay

Dont plant different corn species nearby eachother, this Will result in crosspollination and this in turn Will make the corn have very little corn

Great video! just a question- i wanted to try this in my small farm- 16000 sq ft. where i will plant corn as major crop, for that is there a model which can be implemented while planting sweat corn in a row? Thank you.

Can you use pumpkin,like sugar pie?

So, the beans are situated close by the corn stalk to assure them grabbing on?

Question, I have a 2 foot by 17 foot space I can grow these, how would you recommend I go about it?

Could I theoretically replace the beans with peas? I dont care for beans but would like to try this method.

How well does each grouping method stand up to pest pressure and plant diseases. I mean the better nutrient availability is great, and the less weed pressure. But Stinkbugs love beans and corn alike and a denser foliage results in more fungus usually. Can you give reading recommendation on these methods?

if you only put 4 stalks of corn per mound, how many mounds do you need to have minimum in order to grow corn? Asking since Im trying to grow in an urban backyard.

Im doing just that :)

I wonder if you could replace the squash with something like sweet potato. It would serve the same purpose as squash but would be more calorically dense

I don’t know if she mentioned this but if you’re growing more then one hill you need to grow dent or popcorn and dry beans not sweet corn and green beans because once the squash plants take over it is almost impossible to get to the corn and bean plants without crushing the squash vines

Ahhhh! CoSquaBea is the key!

We've been doing this in my country. We plant corn,beans, huckleberry "njama njama " or other vegetables

You can’t do this for fall?

Can you his be done in Midland Texas ?

any 3 sisters for winter?

Any tips for squash bugs without pesticides?

Is the three sisters method of planting limited to corn beans squash? do you have any other three plant combinations to use?

You can plant up to 64 stalks in a 4'x4' square too, you can pack them in pretty tight, then the tassels are directly above the silks dropping pollen too.

Can you plant melons/ cucumbers instead of squash / pumpkin?

Can you substitute pumpkins for squash?

Gangstah Gotta take it way back. Gonna put this in practice well at least Start I already have 8 Seeds Of Sweet Bantam Corn all I need is the Pole Bean seeds I have different strains of squash seeds

Nice video. Tip for you, If you ever meet a member of the Wampanoag, pronounce it "womp-nog."

Is Spain good climate for that?

I heard not to mix corn types as you suggest, because they cross pollinate and change . Mixing Seed corn w sweet corn for example.

So I can do pumpkin instead of squash or isit the same thing ? And we love calaloo in Jamaica corn my fav and beans are good I'm set....

Awesome video thankyou