Three Sisters 08/09/09

After I returned from the Pilgrimage of India I was interested in a method of growing various plants together, called “companion planting” or Polyculture. I wrote about this in my post of April 21, 2009. A friend in Madison suggested I try the Three Sisters, squash, maize (corn) and climbing beans. These Three Sisters are the main agriculture crops of some Native American groups in North America. So I planted all three together in the backyard, sweet corn, zucchini squash and climbing green beans.

I mentioned in another post how the pole bean seeds I saved from a bountiful harvest last year did not work this year since purchased seeds are genetically modified not to be reused. Fortunately a friend of the family had given us some of her family vintage green beans and they are growing well on the homemade trellis. I have tried growing zucchini squash before but was not very successful. This year I am reaping a good zucchini crop. There was not a lot of room for sweet corn to grow and pollinate but the few that came up are doing well.

When I was in India at the Navdany rural institute founded by world-renowned scientist and environmentalist Dr. Vandana Shiva, I saw plots of crops with 10 or 17 plants together. However, I am happy with my Three Sisters trio and next year plan to do more companion planting.

As you can see in the picture it is working, but I have a question about the sweet corn. The question is whether to detassel the corn. When we were working together in an alternative school, the same friend who suggested the Three Sisters used to take us somewhere in Wild Rose to detassel corn. However, I cannot remember when or why we did this or if it was sweet corn or corn for silage. I need to ask my friend, but in the meanwhile I detasseled two large corn stalks and left the others with a tassel. To detassel or not or — does it matter?

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