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  • #1

    Size/layout of containers

    First of all just want to say how helpful this site is - so much info and even 'daft' questions aren't laughed at - Great!

    Inspired by 5 (!) hours of reading on here yesterday, I have today planted sweetcorn seeds in loo rolls (never heard of it until I read it on here last night and could only salvage 6 from the recycling box ) also planted chilli and pepper seeds and tomato seeds.

    Last year I managed to grow courgettes(got loads), carrots(a few), potatoes(a fair few), tomatoes(a few), strawberries(not many), aubergine (none!), peppers (none!), Chillis (none!) dwarf french beans(a few). Grew them all in containers as haven't got round to digging out the area I'd like to use for growing veggies yet.

    Anyway, this year I'd like to try growing a three sisters garden in containers with sweetcorn, climbing french beans and courgettes. My question is, do I plant all three in the same container? And if so, how big a container do I need, and how many of each plant? I've searched and searchhed to try to find the answers, and I know I need to plant the sweetcorn in a block because of pollination, but I can't find the exact answers I need. Any advice/help would be very much appreciated

    J x
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  • #2
    Hi
    I planted my sweetcorn the year before last in a metal dustbin. I think I planted 4 or 5 sweetcorn. I wouldn't have thought you would be able to get all 3 in a dusbin sized container. You could perhaps squeeze a few courgette plants inbetween to trail over the sides. A warning tho, unless you really really like courgettes, don't plant too many or you will end up with a glut.
    AKA Angie

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    • #3
      Hi Jen

      From what I've read, the traditional three sisters system only works well if you are drying the beans to save over winter, as the native Americans did - the beans climbing the sweetcorn in the middle of the block are tricky to harvest. Plus, if we have another poor summer, the corn won't grow tall enough to support the beans anyway.

      Sweetcorn with squash/courgettes is a good combination, however, provided you add plenty of fertilizer to the container. Be sparing with the water as well - courgettes don't like to be waterlogged. Alternatively, plant lettuces or spinach around your sweetcorn, as they will benefit from the shade.

      Either way, you are almost certainly better off growing your beans in a trough with a conventional cane-and-string support.
      Last edited by Eyren; 07-04-2009, 06:08 AM.

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      • #4
        The 3 Sisters don't really work in the UK - our season is too short. The beans grow faster than the sweetcorn.

        As to planting, your seed packets should tell you the planting distances. You can work it out from there, more or less. eg. courgette about 2' apart, sweetcorn about 12" apart, beans about 9" apart.

        You could always put one per pot, and just cluster your pots together so they look like 3 Sisters
        All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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        • #5
          Don't know about the Three Sisters thing - I'm so not going to try it in Aberdeenshire ! - but I did notice a long term weather forecast for this summer, put out by the bloke who invented them. He was originally an astrophysicist who found a link between solar activity and changes in the upper parts of Earth's atmosphere, which foretold longer-term swings in weather patterns. Until he sold his modelling data to the Met Office at Bracknell, weather forecasts were only ever for the next two days - now they are for up to a week ahead in detail, and months in broad terms.
          Anyway, he reckons it will be pissing wet this summer, much like last. So I am planning on that basis, after all he was making a living selling these forecasts to farmers who swore by him back when everyone said it couldn't be done. Not expecting high sweetcorn yields...
          There's no point reading history if you don't use the lessons it teaches.

          Head-hunted member of the Nutter's Club - can I get my cranium back please ?

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          • #6
            Originally posted by snohare View Post
            Anyway, he reckons it will be pissing wet this summer, much like last. So I am planning on that basis, after all he was making a living selling these forecasts to farmers who swore by him back when everyone said it couldn't be done. Not expecting high sweetcorn yields...

            Now THERE'S a suprise...

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            • #7
              Thanks for the replies guys

              Think I'll probably go with the several containers grouped together and hope for the best. I probably wouldn't bother with the sweetcorn but it was the only thing my son said he definitely wanted to plant typical!!

              Perhaps if we expect a soggy wet summer, anything else will be a bonus eh??

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