[Silverpaul]

Has anyone tried this method of planting sweetcorn,climbing beans ans squash together. If you have tried it was it successful and if it wasn't what aspect of it disappointed you.

[mumofstig]

This is where the search is helpful.

If you type in three sisters you get 4 pages of threads to read 

[rowan57]

It won't work properly in this country. The varieties used for 3 sisters plantings were specifically selected for the purpose, your average pumpkin, bean & sweetcorn aren't going to harmonise in the same way. We also have a vastly different climate and (shorter) season to the American Indians - Its not quite as simple as planting beans with corn then adding a pumpkin in, each plant was added at a different stage.

That being said - Read up on companion planting for the UK climate, there are combinations that work and assist each other.

[Madame Cholet]

Have a look at forest gardening too they suggest things that grow in layers.

[RichardA]

It always struck me that growing beans up sweetcorn is a waste of time as the leaves of each rob the other of sunlight and roots also conflict. However with the wide spacing of sweetcorn especially if grown in blocks of say 3 by 3 plants or 4 by 4 plants means the space between plants is just right for courgettes and between blocks is right for pumpkins and butter nut squash etc in the 4 metre by 6 metre plots that I divide my garden into. The sweetcorn seem to like their roots being kept cool and moist by the squash at ground level and having sweet corn above does not worry the squash BUT BUT BUT you need very rich soil to succeed so either do what the Indians did in three sisters or use lashings of good compost on the plot and in every squash planting hole.
Very good results with my two sisters approach every year but three sisters to my mind is not viable at all.
Just my experience.
R

[strider84]

Very slightly off topic but I was reading in one of my veg books about growing runner beans up sunflowers.

Might give it a go

[Jackypam]

Sound very pretty, esp the red flower ones.

[Trillium]

rowan57 is right, 3 sisters wouldn't work well in the UK because it really is too cold there for corn in the way that the 3 sisters needs to work. Native people mostly dried their foods for winter use and summers were both warmer and longer than the UK. They also spaced out the corn further than most home veg gardens allow, plus they added lots of dead fish below the corn as a nutrient boost. The squash they grew wasn't the cultivated pumpkins we're familiar with today but rather courgettes, bottle gourds, pattypans, and the beans were strictly the drying types, in particular, pinto, lima and various coloured beans. The old varieties of dent, flint and flour corn they used were often quite tall and would never be shaded by the beans.

[Salmo]

Two sisters with sweet corn and squashes works a treat but I have never got beans to do any good with them.

I plant both crops through woven weed  fabric. The fabric gets reused for several years.

The cougettes get put at the edges for ease of picking.

They follow on from overwintered purple sprouters and caulis cabbage