Companion planting: Three sisters & five sisters crops planting in Africa

 

Companion Planting: Three sisters and five sisters planting in Sub-Sahara Africa

Companion planting

Have you ever wondered why some crops produce more when planted together with certain plants? Just visualize a rural organic farmland with maize, beans and cocoyam (Ibo coco) planted together! The tons of harvest from this mixed farming will leave you puzzling. Yes, our ancestors farmed and harvested tons of food without any chemical input. And I wonder what happens now. The chemicals we keep applying in our farms have been polluting the soil, killing soil organisms, destroying our ecosystems and affecting our health. It is time we begin to understand the beneficial synergy between different plants so we can increase yield, control pests and diseases without applying external chemicals into our farmlands. Welcome to the world of companion planting.

Companion planting

Have you ever wondered why some crops produce more when planted together with certain plants? Just visualize rural organic farmland with maize, beans, and cocoyam (Ibo coco) planted together! The tons of harvest from this mixed farming will leave you puzzling. Yes, our ancestors farmed and harvested tons of food without any chemical input. And I wonder what happens now. The chemicals we keep applying in our farms have been polluting the soil, killing soil organisms, destroying our ecosystems and affecting our health. It is time we begin to understand the beneficial synergy between different plants so we can increase yield, control pests and diseases without applying external chemicals into our farmlands. Welcome to the world of companion planting.

So what really is companion planting?

Companion planting is the practice of growing different plants together so they can benefit from each other. Certain combinations of plants make each of them more productive. Why? Because some plants have a mutually beneficial relationship with complementary characteristics such as nutrient requirements, natural support, weed suppression, pest-repelling abilities amongst others.

A typical example of companion planting is the famous Three Sisters crop -where maize, beans and pumpkin or squash are planted together. This has been done in Sub-Sahara Africa for millennia. Today it is still the usual traditional practice within rural communities’ farmland in the tropics. These plants do complement each other and each of them does benefit from the union as they grow symbiotically to deter weeds and pests, enrich the soil fertility and support each other.

•         The tall corn provides support to the climbing beans, you can use any variety of corn – soft, pop, white, yellow, etc...
•        The fast-growing beans convert atmospheric nitrogen to soil nitrogen which fertilizes all the plants especially corn which requires a large quantity of nutrients. The beans also help to stabilize the maize during heavy wind.
•         The squash or pumpkin grows low and wide around the corn and beans. It shades the soil to prevent moisture loss. Its big leaves also suppress weeds and control pests and insects.  Bingo! 
•     What a wonderfully beneficial relationship. Please like comment and subscribe while we share information on how to plant the three sisters

How do we plant the three (3) sisters?

Note: In sub-Sahara Africa they are two planting seasons starting in March and September. So make sure you plant at the right time

• 1     Choose a sunny location with at least 6 hours of full sunlight every day
• 2     Clear the farm around January and allow the grass/shrub to dry and decompose for about 6-8 weeks before tillage.
• 3     Make sure you start tilling at the beginning of the planting season.
• 4     Fold the dried and decayed grass/shrubs in the middle of the furrow.
• 5    Prepare the soil with much organic matter, composted animal/farm manure and wood ash.
• 6     Hoe the soil on both sides of the furrow to cover up the decayed grass/shrub within the bed.
• 7     Make a bed about 0.5m wide, 20cm high and 4m long.  Inter-bed distance should be about 50cm.
• 8     Cut the pumpkin or squash open, remove the seeds and spread to dry under shade for 2 days. Get your maize seeds ready for planting.
• 9    Then plant your maize – 3 seeds per spot, 1m apart. Then plants 2 seeds of pumpkin between the maize.
• 10.  About 10 days later, you plant your beans, 2 seeds close to the corn.
• 11 Sit, relax and watch the 3 sisters do the magic. Nature has it all. 

 The three sisters provide both sustainable soil fertility as well as a healthy organic balanced diet. Experience has shown that the concept of 3 sisters crop can include even up to 4 or 5 crops. For the purpose of increasing food yield on a small piece of land, I will showcase how to plant up to 5 complimentary crops on raised beds in a planting season. For this, we shall be adding amaranth (Greens) and Cocoyam. This mixed planting increases biodiversity which attracts pollinators to enhance flowering, fruiting and food production.

Amaranth

·        The fourth sister (Amaranth – Greens) is included because it attracts pollinators, lures birds away from eating the maize and is also very nutritional. More pollinators imply more fruits and more yield.

Growing cocoyam

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Then the fifth sister which is cocoyam (ibo coco) is a staple food in sub-Sahara Africa and grows for about 5 months before harvesting tubers for food. So it will be the last crop to harvest before we prepare the soil again for the next planting season. It helps to control pests and suppresses weed.

 How to plant five (5) sister crops on raised beds in the tropics

• Make a bed about 1m wide, 30cm high (flat top and 4-6m long. Inter-bed distance should be at least 50cm.
• Cover your cocoyam on a dark wet area to sprout into seedlings
• Plant your cocoyam seedlings 20cm deep and 1m apart on both sides of the beds.
•  Plant your maize – 3 seeds between the planted cocoyam.
• Then plant 2 pumpkin seeds in a spot about 20cm close to the cocoyam
• Sparingly broadcast your amaranth seeds on the beds and level the bed by racking so some seeds are lightly covered.

• After 10 -14 days  you plant your beans 2 seeds just 10cm close to the maize 
• The seeds used for this type of sisters cropping should be organic seeds
• Direct the beans vines towards the nearest cornstalk as they grow. This allows it to climb upwards, rather than creep along the ground.
• Hoe as many beds as you can and weed regularly

1     Harvested in succession

1.     Amaranth can be harvested 7 weeks after planting. Use a sharp knife to cut the soft stem, leaving 2-3 nodes underneath for new shoots. You can harvest weekly for the next 2 months before it starts flowering.

2.     Pumpkin/squash soft stems and leaves can be harvested from the 8th week after planting. They spread out fast once the first meristematic tip is cut off. Harvesting too can continue for the next 3 months before fruiting. Don’t harvest too much if you are interested more in the pumpkin/squash fruits.

3.     The beans start flowering just 10 weeks after planting. Harvesting commences from the 14 weeks when the beans are matured for harvesting. This may continue for another 2 months.

4.     The maize is ready in about 16 weeks. After harvesting the maize, leave the stalk to dry up for another 2 weeks so you can continue harvesting the beans. After this, the production of the beans begins to reduce, then you cut the stalk to mulch the cocoyam and add some soil on the bed so the cocoyam can produce bigger tubers.

5.     At the end of 22 weeks, you start harvesting the cocoyam and pumpkin fruits. Get ready for another planting season starting in September.

Thinking time

Climate change has led to an increase in temperature which has resulted to drought that is negatively affecting crops production, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.

Question: What could you easily add as the 6^th sister crop to remedy this situation?  Explain your reasons… 2min to think and write your ideas below in the comment.

Watch the video on companion planting of our three or five sister groups here

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Polyculture for pest control, high yield & food diversity

 Polyculture - alley, strip, cover, inter, mixed or three sister cropping systems

Polyculture is an agricultural system were multiple crops are planted on the same piece of land to provide crop diversity which mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. This does not only provide food, but sustain life as a whole. As opposed to raising single crop/animal (monoculture), polyculture is raising more than one species of plants or animals at the same time and place. Polyculture is an old system of farming which is still carried out in sub-Sahara Africa and has regained popularity today because of its environment and health benefits. It is a sustainable form of agriculture because of its ability to control pests, weed and diseases without major chemical inputs. There are different types of polyculture systems such as intercropping, cover-cropping and alley cropping. The type of polyculture carried out depends on the types of plants grown, the spatial distribution and the time they spend growing together. The type of plants or animals that can be raised in a polyculture system has no limit.

Three sister crops (Maize, beans and pumpkin)

Intercropping or mixed cropping – This occurs when two or more crops are planted together e.g legumes and cereals mixtures. The legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soils at its root noddle in a process called nitrogen fixation. This soil nitrogen acts as fertilizer for the other plants and therefore eliminates the need for man-made fertilizers. A typical example is the ‘three sister crop’ system of planting maize, beans and squash (e.g pumpkin) in a group to provide mutual benefits to each other. The maize provides support for the beans to grow on, the beans provide nitrogen to fertilize all the plants while the squash suppresses the weeds. These crops thus sustain each other with little or no human intervention.

Cover cropping: - This is when a crop is grown alongside another plants that is not a crop e. grass & legumes. Cover crops can help to prevent erosion, suppress weeds, improve water retention or fix nitrogen. It can also be called weedy culture if the non-crop element is a weed.

Strip or alley cropping

Strip or alley cropping: - This involves growing different crops in alternating rows. Though it doesn’t involve a complete mix of the plants, it also prevent soil erosion and aid nutrient cycling. 

Permaculture: - This is a polyculture of perennial plants such as cocoa, coffee, timber, fruit trees etc. This system increases soil fertility, decreases soil erosion, conserve soil nutrient and increase soil organism and water retention. Agroforestry is a popular form of permaculture where trees and crops are grown together. The trees provide shade and organic nutrients when they share off their leaves and also provide extra commodities like timber, medicine, firewood etc. Shade loving crops like coffee and cocoa are well suited within such a system.

Advantages of polyculture

Pest and disease control: - Pest are less predominant in polyculture due to crop diversity. Specialized pest that prefers a concentration of a single crop type often gets confused as they find it difficult to locate a favorable host in a polyculture. Common general pest moves from one plant to another within a polyculture system to the surrounding environment because they look alike, thereby reducing the effect on a particular crop. This diversity of plants attracts natural enemies or predators which help to further suppress pest population without causing harm to the plants. Different plants are susceptible to different diseases so the spread of diseases can be contained in polyculture.

Weed control: - the high density of plants reduces available space, sunlight, water and nutrients for weed to develop as resources are fully utilized by crops. The few that do grow can host arthropods (pest enemies) that are beneficial to other crops.

 Sustainability: -

A bunch of plantains at Suzy-Farms

A polyculture system doesn’t depend on pesticide, but can be boosted with minimal use of organic fertilizers as diverse plants are planted together. This greatly reduce eutrophication of fresh water, hence good health and wellbeing. Reduce tillage conserves microbes and soil nutrients. This saves money as farmers can grow multiple crops and animals on same piece of land with little or no machinery. It increases local biodiversity which attract different pollinators, hence increase pollination and fruits harvest. Polyculture addresses human subsistence needs because food security doesn't just depends on quantity, but on diversity and quality of available food. Polyculture is diverse in nature and provides both nutritional and economic resilience  because if one plant fails, the other crops may support the household with food and income.

Polyculture is more effective when the diverse plant species have distinct biological needs such as absorbing different nutrients and requiring different amount of sunlight (no competition). Our modern lifestyle is negatively impacting our land and ecosystems. Restoring these systems will lead to food abundance to support human life and culture as well as restore the ecosystems. It is our duty to secure a rich permaculture for future generation. So let’s do it...

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