I would like to try planting pumpkins or vining winter squash among my Indian corn and sweet corn this year. I haven’t found a decent guide for how the plants should be spaced. So you have rows of corn, but where should the pumpkins be planted and at what spacing. One guide I read said to only plant pumpkins on the outer edge of the corn field. I don’t think that is utilizing the 3 sisters method (in my case, 2 sisters). Any help?
I think it says to plant them on the edge because they won’t get enough light deep inside the corn field.
2 Likes
Right. But I thought the point of 3 sister method is for the vines to shade the soil around corn plants keeping it cooler, controlling weeds, and utilizing that space.
3 sisters method was originally not in rows. To correctly utilize the corn, beans and squash method of the Native Americans, you cant think along today’s standards of agriculture. No row, I believe that they were planted in mounds if i remember correctly.
4 Likes
OK… this may be an experimental plot for me this year. 
Here’s an interesting link with a layout:
3 Likes
The people that do it here are spacing 3-4 feet between mounds, just dry corn/dry beans no squash. I have seen all three in Mexico, appeared to be 5-6 feet? between mounds.
1 Like
Thank you! The map layout is very helpful.
1 Like
Trivia time. The corn benefits from nitrogen fixed by the beans. The corn benefits from the pumpkins because raccoons don’t like walking through the pumpkin leaves to get to the corn. If planted properly, the pumpkins sprawl on the ground pretty much covering the ground with leaves while the beans and corn stand above where they can get plenty of light.
Also, most modern pumpkins won’t work with a 3-sisters garden. They either grow too large, grow over everything around them including the corn, or don’t sprawl enough to cover the ground. One that I have used is Long Pie which you can find at a few vendors including Sandhill Preservation.
Beans planted in 3-sisters should be a fairly fast growing type. I’ve used Turkey Craw to some effect. Plant the corn and wait until it is about a foot tall, then plant the beans. If planted too early, the beans will overwhelm the corn.
You can plant beans on every other corn mound and pumpkins on every 3rd mound. I used 4 feet spacing between mounds but they can be closer in some climates and should be further apart where low rainfall limits production.
8 Likes
Thanks for that information @Fusion_power ! I haven’t heard that coons don’t like to walk on pumpkin leaves, that is interesting. That would be an easier way to protect the corn patch than hot wires and night guards!
I am growing C. moschata and C. maxima types, I don’t know how they will work, but am going to give it a try.
1 Like
Hello! I have planted three sisters in a raised bed and can attest that they need to be smaller groups of corn spaced out probably mounds work best as others mentioned. My squash was shaded out by corn and did not develop fruit. Vining beans did good but squash couldn’t handle it. Corn got big too fast and there was not enough light!
1 Like
Hey @Katie_didnt_Z4b, thank you for sharing your experience!! I had read that light could be a problem for the pumpkins. I understand now why the plants are placed in mounds.
1 Like
I wanted to try the 3 sisters method this year as well… sadly all my pumpkins/melons got snacked by slugs… so I think the most important part about this growing method is nr.1 : right timing… so that the corn is already big enough for the vine to climb on it and the squash doesn’t take away all the light for the beans. Nr.2 : good varieties… I got to admit that I’m also the kind of guy who likes to try out the rare and unusual varieties… but in the end that is just a form of greed… if I would live in the tropics I would like to grow the stuff which grows here in Bavaria well… and here in Bavaria I want to grow the tropical stuff… so choosing varieties which are already kind of adapted to your area is advisable… when it comes to spacing I would just do what feels natural… nature doesn’t grow straight lines. straight lines might seem to be beneficial (maybe looks better, easier to harvest etc.) but in the end it’s not better or even worse then just planting like it feels harmonious (I have read somewhere that straight lines are worse because wildlife/pests also tend to move in straight lines. Imagine you have a straight line of cookies in your room compared to cookies scattered all over the room… the cookies in a straight line are much more attractive and it’s easier to snack all of them in a short time)
2 Likes
Funny analogy!! Thanks for the tips, Philipp. 
We’ve done the modified three sisters with squash in mounds on the edges. They travel through the rows of corn and beans pretty well on their own — too well sometimes when it comes to harvesting the corn.
2 Likes
You’re welcome 
I highly recommend reading " the one straw revolution "… it contains all the information that you “need” for gardening… if I would have too choose one book out of the billions that have been written , and all other books would be gone forever, it would be this one 
really enlightening 
1 Like