Technical Abstract: Year-round demand for fresh-cut produce, such as muskmelon (Cucumis melo L. Reticulatus group) fruit, can include importation of whole-fruit from as far away as Chile; requiring expensive air shipments. Surface shipments would reduce these transportation expenses, but would also require a longer shelf-life fruit than what is now commercially available to withstand the shipping/storage time frame of up to five weeks prior to fresh-cut processing. Current muskmelon cultivars have a fruit storage life of up to two weeks. The purpose of this study was to compare a novel hybrid with its muskmelon parental lines (ultra-firm female × commercial muskmelon cultivar type male) for whole-fruit horticultural marketable quality and phytonutrient attributes following up to five weeks at 1 or 5 degrees C. At harvest, repeated over two-years, whole hybrid fruit were larger (33% to 37% heavier) than its parental lines, and had an external firmness equal to its female parent. The external and internal firmnesses of the female parent averaged 4.5-fold and 3.6-fold firmer, respectively, than those of the male parent. Compared to its male parent, the internal tissue of hybrid fruit following five weeks at 1 or 5 degrees C had more intense orange chroma, due to higher concentrations of beta-carotene, was sweeter (relative sweetness), had a 7-fold higher concentration of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (folic acid), fewer internal disorders, and reduced senescence. The aforementioned tissue firmness of hybrid fruit would make it highly suitable to withstand surface shipments of up to 5 weeks; and the aforementioned quality characteristics would make it likely preferable to consumers both taste-wise and nutritionally as a fresh-cut product.