wonderful informative thread Sjoerd! i did not know about those little nodules on the bean roots! how fascinating! now, when my beans and peas are through, i'm gonna have to dig up the roots and see what they look like! i usually put all garden waste in the compost. we till lightly our soil just once every year. i was wondering about planting corn after beans? i've read alot about the 'three sisters', corn beans and squash being planted together.
Hiyah Bunkie, I believe that planting corn where beans were will be ok. Were you planning upon leaving the bean roots in the ground? Corn is a known gobbler of nitrogen and phosphorus. I give my corn suppliments of nitrogen in the form of blood meal during their life cycle. Corn is a grass sort, so that tells you that nitrogen is necessary for it to grow and produce optimally. As for the "three sisters method"-- It is a tried and tested scheme that works well and is fun to do. I think that this style of growing dates back to your american indians. Those guys knew about farming (at least the cherokee did. I do not know about the plains indians, I believe that they were more nomadic). I realize that this 3 sis method is not child's play...but I have always thought that this would be great fun for children to experiment with...and of course the whole family would benefit from the harvest to boot.
Hi Sjoerd, all i can tell you about the banana peels is that all summer long, they are saved and left in a bin, to turn to liquid almost. its open so they do break down fast. when the potatoes are harvested, this mush is put into the holes, covered over and left over winter. The following yr, the potatoes can then be planted on that same spot with no worry about if the earth has enough nutrients for them. Its one of those old farmer tricks from up here. And it works. All i do is have manured sprayed 2 times before the planting takes place, and let the rains soak it in. When i dig my trenches to make mounds, it gets all worked in. I started to use that metheod on my brassicas because it worked so well for the potatoes, and let me tell you, i have huge cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower. Normally, this yr is an exeption, because of when they all got planted again. But we will see, harvest isn't over yet!
That sounds like a good technique to me, Biita. I do that with my runner bean trenches and get whopping great harvests each year--so I'm with you on that one: it absolutely does work. You are very welcome, Glenda. I'm just so glad that you are back.
