Sonka Butternut

[jayb]

I'm looking forward to growing these, seeds were gifted to me by Galina, thank you

I'm growing them as part of my hopefully to be 'Butternut Mix' but if they do well here I'd also like to bag a fruit or two. I've four plants growing, all are looking well and they are just starting to find their feet. It's not the earliest of starts for any of them, but I'm interested to compare how they perform with the other butternuts this year. The pretty foliage is a bonus.

[jayb]

First flowers have opened the last couple of days, all the sonka's have female flowers opening and are the first of the butternuts. In fact I'm struggling to find any male moschata to pollinate them with.

[Galina]

Sonka is looking very good. Please don't forget this was seed that was scooped out from a shop bought Sonka, but if it is a hybrid, it would not matter for your experiment. As long as it gives you the red flesh colour as an addition for the butternut mix.

Exactly the same with our tromboncino. Which is our earliest squash this year. But because unfertilised females are quite sizeable, we have been eating them as courgettes. One male flower has finally developed. Normally it is the other way round.

[jayb]

So far they are all looking quite similar and all started flowering within a day or two of each other. You're right I don't mind if they are F1 or not, but seeing as these are leading the way I think I'd like to be saving some selfed seed too. Sorry if I've asked before, have you grown these out before?

It grates a little when there are female flowers but no male ones, seems a bit of a waste.

[templeton]

Is that a bush type butternut? Very pretty little plant. Wouldn't it be nice to have a pumpkin that produced both boys and girls at the same time? Particularly early in the season. I wonder if this is a selectable trait? And red flesh? Any pics?

[Galina]

http://www.bobby-seeds.com/en/Cucurb...Sonca::23.html


The only source of seeds I know of describes them as moderately vining. The fruit where the seeds came from is however shop bought. Whilst I am not aware of different varieties of Sonka, it could of course be a commercial hybrid. On the other hand it might not.

[jayb]

I can confirm the ones I grew are a vining type but as Galina says

moderately vining

they are not rampant around the plot, though vigorous in their own space.
I knocked a fruit off by accident the other day, it's still dark green but a good size. In fact a bit bigger than I was expecting, it weighed in at 4lb 10oz. It's sitting on the windowsill, kinda looking lonesome on its own.

Sonka still has the pretty leaves which help it stand out




Fruits all look fairly similar on the different plants.

[Galina]

They are looking lush. Should happily ripen on the window sill even 'harvested' at this stage.

[jayb]

Hope so
It's got a nice ring to it when I tap it. Fingers crossed for viable seed, although not selfed it will go into my butternut grow outs

[Galina]

love dancing smilie - well chances are they were hybrid anyway as they were from shop bought squash, just hope you will get their lovely red/orange flesh into the mix. And their earliness is definitely good news too.

[jayb]

As they are so uniform in habit and looks I think it likely I'm either growing all F1 seed from the same parentage cross or a stable variety. They seem just a bit too similar to be an open cross/crosses or grow outs from a hybrid variety? Perhaps they came from a large plot of same variety. Though they are a bit bigger than expected, plus they need to change colour.....

[jayb]

I'm chuffed with these, although not as many fruits as I'd first thought, several grew to quarter size and then fizzled away, a common theme this year. The fruit are a good size and I'm looking forward to tucking in! I still have lots of seeds left from Galina to sow, big thanks, hoping for seed too in a hand pollinated one.

[Galina]

They look fine to me - yes they are quite uniform. Fingers crossed. Don't think you need worry about them changing colour. By Christmas they will be buff, or maybe by November. One of them is well on its way.

[jayb]

I've been a bit disappointed with the quality of flesh, it is quite stringy.

[Hector1]

What a shame...lovely foliage

[jayb]

I'm trying a couple more Sonka plants this year, just to see. If they don't eat any better, then it will be the last time! Which would be a shame as they produced quite well.

[Galina]

This is the typical Sonka flesh Jayb, they are not as fine-grained as butternut. And the colour looks right too. Pity you don't like them. No point growing them again. What your photo above shows is typical for Sonka. We love the different flavour to ordinary butternut squashes but if they are not for you, there is no point persevering. There are so many other squashes to try.