Greeley Wonder

Large, round or slightly flattened, netted melon with prominent ribbing. 9-10" long, 8-10" wide, 10-15lbs. Rind turns light yellow when ripe. Orange flesh is 1.5" thick. Pleasant, aromatic flavor but lacking a little in complexity and sweetness. Slightly grainy texture. Large, hollow seed cavity. Moderately productive. Mid-season maturing. Fruit slips from the vine when ripe. Brix 12.3. Susceptible to anthracnose. The Greeley Wonder cantaloupe is a family heirloom which has been stewarded by several generations of the Monroe family in Kersey, Colorado (near Greeley, CO) since the 1920s. Gerald E. Monroe, Sr (CO MO G) grew the melons through the 1980s and remembered eating them as child when his father, Lester Monroe, grew them. Lester originally received the seeds locally in the 1920s. The melon was well-known in the area, because it was developed in Greeley in the 1890s by James Max Clarke. However in 1989, the Monroe’s believed their seed was lost after a hailstorm took out their crop. The family approached SSE in 2017 to see if any seeds were in the SSE collection. There were, and while arrangements were made to ship seeds, Gerald’s grandson, Kyle Monroe, also found a bucket of seeds from 1988 in the back of their barn. They were able to successfully grow and revive the seed stock for themselves as well as SSE. According to Jacqueline Monroe, it’s the dry sandy soil of the Greeley region that makes this cantaloupe so sweet! SSE Accession # 133409