you plant 8 bush bean plants per corn plant per square foot.

No way! 8?? I was hoping it would be a lot. I planned on 4 but I have never done that. I figured it would be too heavy. YAY!!

Wow, that is much more than I expected as well.

I only figured one pole bean per corn stalk.

With this information, maybe I will do two at the most - since I am going to try this in the Spring as well.

The corn will need to be able to get sunlight and with the leaves of the beans covering them, this will diminish their output in my opinion.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Now I read 8 POLE beans per corn. A bush bean wont matter with corn. They are bushes and rarely vine. I am planting pole beans with my corn and putting squash at the bottom (like the 3 sister's method). This is my first year doing it but I did grow bush beans last year and they did not vine...well one did but the whole bush didnt, just this one vine sprouted from the bush and went to visit my corn. lol

I tried the 3 sisters last year. I planted 4 corn per square and 9 pole beans in a square next to the corn. I planted a pie pumpkin next to that. The pole beans grew all over the corn and bent some tops over. then the pumpkin grew through the corn and up the trellis. I hand pollinated the corn but only got a few ears. It was hard to do with the beans growing amongst them. The pumpkins never ripened before fall frost hit the vine. This was my first attempt at SFG. I think I might skip corn this year. The corn was very tasty, though. I didn't have any trouble with my corn blowing over or becoming uprooted - even in only 6" of soil. Maybe if I did one corn per sq. it would work better. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Keski

Kilda, if you have kids, download the Fedco seed school curriculum pdf file and read about the three sisters garden under native seeds. This might not fit in your SFG, but it's a great gardening activity with children...or even a group of friends!

jengc i said 8 bush beans. not pole beans. try rereading my post. you don't want more then 1 pole bean per corn plant

bcpl..I read your post and understood you said bush beans. Hence the reason why I typed pole beans in caps. I have never heard of putting bush beans in the 3 sisters and thought maybe you mistyped. Also, I have read on several sites that say 8 pole beans per corn stalk. This is the first I read (shadysite's post) that it would be too heavy for the corn stalk.