Jaboticaba
Plinia cauliflora
A tender, acid-loving tree that asks for soft water, damp air, and a winter under heated glass.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 16 ft 5 in
- In-row spacing
- 16 ft 5 in
- Between rows
- 19 ft 8 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Bright, indirect light suits it best, with a little shade while the tree is young.
- Watering
- Keep the compost evenly moist with rainwater, and mist the leaves to hold the humidity up.
- Feeding
- Feed monthly through the growing season with a fertilizer made for acid-loving plants.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- February
- Pruning
- Prune as little as possible, leaving the trunk and main branches intact.
- Overwintering
- Winter it under heated glass above 10°C, keeping the air humid.
Through the year
- Mar–Mar Flowering
- Mar–Apr Fruit Set
- Apr–Dec Harvest
- Jan–Mar Harvest
Pests & problems
- Fungus gnats Small dark flies drifting over damp compost; their larvae nibble seedling roots. Let the compost surface dry between waterings and use yellow sticky traps.
- Mealybugs White cottony sap-suckers that gather in leaf axils and along stems, mostly on houseplants and under glass. Dab colonies with a cotton swab dipped in soapy water and isolate affected plants.
- Scale insects Immobile brown or white bumps fixed to stems and leaf undersides, sucking sap and weakening growth. Wipe off with a damp cloth or dab with horticultural soap; watch for the sooty mold that follows.
- Root & crown rot Root rot brought on by overwatering
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Hoverfly Syrphidae
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) Coccinellidae
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.Hunts Fungus gnats
Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.
- Centipedes ChilopodaHunts Fungus gnats
Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Fungus gnats
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Mealybugs
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & AmblyseiusHunts Fungus gnats
Fast orange mites that hunt spider mites egg-by-egg, and cousins that clear thrips and fungus-gnat larvae. Sold as a biological control for greenhouses; outdoors they follow humidity — mist and mulch, don’t dust with sulfur.
- Rove beetle StaphylinidaeHunts Fungus gnats
Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com