Plot 54

Sunflowers as Living Bean Poles!

Link to Sunflower and Bean Posts

This has to be the best and most interesting experiment. I’ve read a lot about what is termed the ‘Three Sisters‘, reminds me more of a Shakespeare play then a gardening technique. It’s supposed to date back to old Native American growing craft; the Three Sisters being Maize, Squash and Climbing Beans. I really like the idea of combining crops that will work together and I have taken the Three Sisters two-thirds of the way there with the corn and pumpkins/squash growing together. The whole three thirds involves the beans climbing up the sweet corn. You know, I’ve just started thinking of this like scissor, paper, stone (lizard, Spock); Corn provides pole for beans, beans provide nitrogen for squash, squash provides cover for corn. ANYway, problem is.. I really can’t imagine the beans being able to climb successfully up the corn. Not only can I see the corn being completely swamped and choked by the rampant beans but they just wont be tall enough! Not in this country anyway. Plus, the actual corn cob grows half way up on the side of the corn plant; the beans would block the pollen getting to the ears as well as make it really difficult to pick! Corn plants I can’t see as that good bean a pole. Maybe I’ll try one test corn pole this year, but I’m just not convinced.

This is where I came across writings of using sunflowers in the same way. This too was said to be part of the traditional Native American method, but to me it makes a lot more sense. Sunflowers can be strong, they can also be tall, and there isn’t much going on until you get to the flower apart from some big leaves that reach far out from the main stem. This to me sounds like a great experiment. I’ve search and search and I can’t find anyone reporting that they’ve actually tried this, let alone pictures of peoples attempts. So lets do it!

Giant Sunflowers

Ok, to be safe I thought I should go for some really tall sunflowers. Then I thought, hang on.. how tall can I get them? The seeds I’ve got claim sunflowers between 12-15 foot tall! Something like this photo illustrates. Giant pumpkins and now super tall sunflowers. If you look at the photo you can clearly see the decent strong pole sunflowers make and the way the leave stand off from the main stem. How much the beans might choke the sunflower, or the sunflower shade the beans, we’ll have to see. The problems are if the sunflowers fails, so do the beans. If the sunflowers fall, so do the beans. If the sunflower gets struck by lightning… no seriously, look at how tall they are! Man alive. To complete the theme of this experiment, I’ll be using the Native American ‘Trail of Tears’ climbing beans, just to keep it authentic. I’m sure it’s all good karma too.

This will be a really interesting, really rewarding experiment. Should it work, not only will I have a load of giant sunflower seeds for the future (they were fairly expensive) and a load of beans to eat, but the whole thing is going to look amazing! Can’t wait.