[Lupin lurcher]

Good afternoon, I was just wondering if I can grow dwarft beans up my sweetcorn plants.  If so can anyone recommend a good one.  Many thanks. Mandy.

[PennyS]

I've got some climbing beans growing next to my outer sweetcorn.  I have just sown what I'm using elsewhere: Cobra.  Have no idea if they will work well but thought it would be worth a try!

Good luck, Penny

[Lupin lurcher]

Thanks Penny.

[mumofstig]

Dwarf beans wouldn't grow up.....they would grow bushy at just about the height the female cobs will form.
I don't know if the beans would get in the way of the pollen falling from the male flowers at the top of the corn ............has anybody actually tried this?

[Zippy]

Did this last year to good effect; all cobs formed.  Dwarf Beans just grew upright and bushy, helped by the neighbouring sweetcorn stalks. Also Mange Toute scrambling up the centre sweetcorn. I like to think the beans were helping to increase available nitrogen. 

I also had a Butternut Squash in the same bed rambling around.  A true Three Sisters approach but adapted more to British climate as the BNS is not such a rampant grower as some squashes.

The trick is to wait on everything else until the sweetcorn is properly established, thick stems and just over a foot tall so they don't get swamped out by everything else scrambling over them.

[Lupin lurcher]

Thanks mum and zippy, I think I will give it a ago but wait until the sweetcorn is a bit more established as they are only about 8 inches at the moment.  Zippy did you put the bean seeds directly into the ground or did you grown them first at home in toilet roll holders or something similar? Only if it is the later I will go and get some this weekend and start them off.

[Zippy]

Hi Lupin lurcher and welcome.

I started my Dwarf Beans off in small size Service Station coffee cups and peat free compost (B&Q - nothing fancy as they germinate easily). They waited in them quite comfortably until swetcorn was tall enough to compete.

Same with Mange Toute - three to a cup and planted all together per station. They find their own way through the maze (maize?).

Butternut Squash grows very slowly so is the ideal bottom grower in this setup as it doesn't swamp everything else out - creates just enough shade on the ground to cut down watering needs and the sweetcorn and Peas/Beans are already above the squash leaves.

I love complimentary (companion) planting and it is a great way of making one piece of land do more than one crop with limited space.

[mumofstig]

this seems a good idea then.....but do you need very fertile soil in the first place, as corn and butternuts  both need a lot of 'feeding' surely the beans don't provide enough for all the plants :blink:

[Lupin lurcher]

I am hoping mine is fertile enough M.O.S. I buried a load of cows muck and shredded paper back in March then covered it with dirt on the part where my corn is growing as well as where my runners are.  Fingers crossed.  Zippy I will start them off at home then this weekend. Ive decided only to plant dwarf beans as I have only got 12 sweetcorn plants growing.  Thanks everyone once again. Mandy.

[Zippy]

surely the beans don't provide enough for all the plants

No Mum, the beans and peas only contribute to the available Nitrogen but I don't feel the need to feed artificially.

My Sweetcorn and BNS follow last year's Potato beds which had the entire contents of the compost bin on top and not dug in. I don't dig much and the seed potatoes go in at soil level under the well rotted compost. As the potatoes grow on, I just keep piling on more lawn mowings, rabbit hutch scrapings, Comfrey cuttings etc. and the new potatoes are harvested just under the soil level.

I should mention that my wigwam of Runner Beans is also next door to my Sweetcorn block so that may be fixing usable Nitrogen also.

As a result, I think the bed is already still highly fertile the following spring when it comes to planting out the Three Sisters. Also, I sink a leaky pot next to the Butternut Squash so I can water and feed direct to the roots of this hungry plant; Regular feeds of Nettle Tea and Comfrey Cordial.

For mineral requirements I sprinkle on the ash from our hearth which I have stored over many winter fires.

I think that's how I get away with it!

Good Luck, Mandy!

[azubah]

You have just given me an idea. What about growning peas up sweetcorn? Has anyone tried it?

I tried french beans last year, and the year before, but they did not germinate so it was a failure for me. I think they may have got eaten by mice, or it was too cold.

[RichardA]

I doubt things growing up sweetcorn would be any good for it but I have just planted my celery at 9 inch centres under the sweetcorn at 18 inch centres to make best use of the space left to me.
R

[Zippy]

Azubah - yes, the idea is that the peas fix nitrogen in the soil with their roots which is then used by the sweetcorn as it grows; it is a symiotic relationship. Google Three Sisters for more info. What i do is start the peas up sticks shoved in the soil while the sweetcorn is getting taller and thicker and then the peas don't put strain on the growing sweetcorn. See above - I also put in a butternut Squash which grows slowly and givees cool shade to the sweetcorn roots, but not until the sweetcorn has got tall enough not to be shaded out by the bnS leaves.

RichardA - Good luck with the clerey idea. the problem with this is the celery and the sweetcorn are both hungry plants and both looking for soil nitrogen so they are not helping each other, but competing. If the soil is in good heart it may be ok. Will the celery not need full sunshne - which it will not get growing in the sweetcorn block, whereas peas will climb toward the light either on sticks or the sweetcorn stems..