Chris West talks about a farming technique practiced by Natïve Americans
We know that the Native Americans were excellent hunter-gatherers, probably from our middle school textbooks. But most of us were not informed of their laissez-faire system of symbiotic agriculture. I’m speaking of the Three Sisters, one of the farming techniques the Native Americans practiced.
Did you know?
Native Americans had their own distinct tribes, each with their own horticultural traditions. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) coined the term The Three Sisters, although they weren’t the only tribe to use the method.
How it Works
This style of planting utilises three different crops to their full potential in one space to create a circle of interdependence based on giving and receiving.
The Three Sisters is a combination of three plants working together:
Sister bean fixes, or makes available in plant form, nitrogen from the air.
Sister corn provides the support for Sister Bean’s trailing vine.
Sister squash provides ground cover to hold moisture and maintain healthy soil environment while deterring animal invaders with its spiny stems.
The fourth sister can be Sister Sunflower or Sister Bee Balm (aka Bergamot, Horsemint and Oswego Tea). This sister supports the beans, lures birds from the corn with her seeds, and attracts insect pollinators.
I experimented with growing the Three Sisters using the Wampanoag method, where the sisters are grown in blocks more typical of today’s linear agriculture. Here’s what I discovered:
- Plant seeds on level soil in full sun.
- Plant corn, sunflower and squash all at the same time.
- Beans should be planted between 2-3 weeks after the corn has established a proper support stalk.
- When planting beans or slightly later, ‘hill up’ the soil around the corn and sunflowers. This will add more strength to their root systems and allow them to stand strong during high winds.
Chris West is an intern with the Agriculture Supported Communities program.
Source: https://rodaleinstitute.org
