Three Sisters (Agriculture) | Hacker News Reader

Three Sisters (Agriculture)

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86 pointsdownboots12 comments

Braiding Sweetgrass was the book that introduced me the idea of three sisters. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465709-braiding-sweetg...

In Let My People Go Surfing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22155.Let_My_People_Go_S... , the author Yvon Chouinard mentioned that nature love diversity and hate mono-culture. While he didn't invent the concept, it was very profound to me.

Earlier here on HN, there was a post about "replacing bad systems with bad systems" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35476350 Sometimes I think to myself, maybe we started with the best system, the nature, and replace it gradually with partial understanding of the nature.

My experience is that it's hard to get right, messes with crop rotation and lower yield.

I've had beans overtaking the maize and I've had squash overtaking the beans.

YMMV.

I saw this video earlier this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUvnGPAe2Q8

I haven't tried it in my garden but it does seem to have downsides as a system. I'm not all that excited to try it.

Does the three sister method really need crop rotation?

Were you trying it with no-till methods?

What about integrated pest control?

You need crop rotation for beans at least. To lower the risk of parasites and deceased.

Three Sisters pattern has been generalized as a “guild”, with beans fulfilling the function of a nitrogen fixer growing in the vine canopy layer (using the sturdy corn stalks).

Knowing that, wouldn’t you substitute beans with a different nitrogen-fixer at an open canopy slot?

Or even, different varieties of beans?

It would be great to see a resource on how to apply this principle to other regions of the world. Like, ideas for the plants to cultivate.

this is one of the basics of permaculture. If you get in touch with any permaculture teacher/resource for other climates I'm sure you'll easily find an equivalent solution. It's all about working with what you have, where you are

Combine Onions with Carrots, they repel each others pests.

Nope. The fat rabbits in my garden enjoy a balanced diet.

Go and get a gun and you have a healthy diet of rabbits stuffed with onions and carrots.

A similar-ish methodology that I'm aware of is Push-Pull Agriculture for crops in East Africa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push%E2%80%93pull_agricultural...

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