Planting the three sisters is something I’ve wanted to do since I first learned about them, probably in junior high. It’s such a beautiful ecosystem: corn for the beans to grow on, beans to feed nitrogen to the corn and squash, and squash to defend the corn from critters, and shade the ground to keep it moist for all three plants.

At the same time, as a nearly no-experience vegetable gardener, growing corn and peas has seemed really complicated to me. I see everyone in the neighborhood growing lemons and tomatoes, but rarely see anyone crowing corn – and beans need poles or a trellis to grow on, so I’ve never even tried planting them. I spent a huge amount of time looking for instructions on how to grow the three sisters, and ended up finding some bare information on timing – most of which was conflicting, as well as some information on soil preparation.

Some accounts say that Native Americans planted each of the three seeds in a single hole together with the waste parts of a fish. Other accounts talk about growing the sisters near each other, but not necessarily interplanted. some suggest planting the corn first and waiting until it’s 6 inches high before planting the beans and then planting the squash a week later.

I think what I’ve worked out is that all of thee practices might have been used in different regions of the United States. I don’t have a guide for how to do this in Livermore, California, so I think that makes this a great time to experiment!

I looked into corn growing practices and came up with two tidbits on top of the usual – prepare soil, soak seeds, water, and fertilize, advice:

The first one is that corn isn’t pollinated by insects. Without human intervention, corn has to be pollinated by the wind, so corn stalks need to be planted near each other in groups, where the wind is likely to blow pollen onto the corn silks below.

Second, corn stalks have shallow root structures and a strong wind can blow them over, so some growers pile dirt up against the stalk to bury it deeper and support it that way. Staking also works.

Given those two pieces of information, I landed on a hub and wheel pattern for my first 3 sisters patch. I dug 5 inch deep holes, and then planted my seeds an inch deeper than the bottom of my 5 inch hole. I’ll fill these holes in later to help support the plants as they grow.

Corn plants need a lot of water, so I went ahead an set this patch up on my drip irrigation system. this is drip tubing so it drips water along the entire length of the circular tube. This patch isn’t in my outdoor garden room, so I brought back my seed cages to keep the doggos from caving in my corn holes (yep. I did that.).

Next up: I’ll be adding beans and squash seeds to the mix!