Athena' still hard to beat in cantaloupe trails

Cantaloupes continue to be a major crop for Georgia vegetable producers with over 5000 acres of melons planted in 2006. The crop is worth over $60 to the state’s farm gate value. ‘Athena’ has been the predominant variety of cantaloupe grown in Georgia for many years. Many attempts have been made to find a melon superior in yield and performance to ‘Athena’. However, ‘Athena’ continues to be popular with growers and buyers. One similar variety, ‘Aphrodite’, has been a suitable replacement, but is considered too large by most growers. This test compared three varieties being tested for commercial release to ‘Athena’ and ‘Aphrodite’ and also looked at how plant spacing could affect the size of ‘Aphrodite’ cantaloupes. All of these cultigens were Syngenta Seed Company releases and lines. Introduction