We put in a few acres every year of "three sisters" corn growing, but it takes some work. Also has to be done in rotation every few years.
That's the way the Iroquois and Huron Indians used to do it around here, along with other Indians in the southwest.
The "three sisters" are squash/pumpkins, corn, and pole beans. You plant all together. If done right, the pole beans climb the cornstalks and put nitrogen into the soil. The squash leaves choke out major weeds AND retain soil moisture. In the fall, fertilize with anything organic you can find. We've been lucky and had almost unlimited access to rotting round hay bales. In the past, the Indians chucked leftover rotted food, bones, leaves, wood ashes, etc. into the mix. The Indians also had unlimited lands at one time and could change locations every few years. Not so easy for a landowner paying taxes. Also, the Indians has short "peason" or "zea mais" corn, and not the big stuff we usually grow.
We rotate every few years and it's worked fine. No store-bought chemicals at all. I have other corn nearby that gets Roundup, Bicep II, Prowl, etc. etc. Much less work but the yield isn't all that much better. And I wonder what damage it does long term - to the land and maybe me too.
Biggest problem with the tri-cropping is you cannot get in to cultivate with a tractor - and it also gets somewhat difficult to get in to pick corn. You have to step cafefully. But, it looks pretty neat and puts out a pretty good yield of beans, pumpkins, corn (and we add sunflowers to the mix).
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Today's Featured Article - Old Time Threshing - by Anthony West. A lovely harvest evening late September 1947, I was a school boy, like all school boys I loved harvest time. The golden corn ripens well and early, the stoking, stacking,.... the drawing in with the tractors and trailers and a few buck rakes thrown in, and possibly a heavy horse. It would be a great day for the collies and the terrier dogs, rats and mice would be at the bottom of the stacks so the dogs, would have a busy time hunting and killing, all the corn was gathered and ricked in what we c
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