Sapodilla
Manilkara zapota
Barely pruned, since every cut bleeds latex — and steadier through a cool spell than most tropicals.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 26 ft 3 in
- In-row spacing
- 26 ft 3 in
- Between rows
- 29 ft 6 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun, with heated glass anywhere frost is a possibility.
- Watering
- Water regularly, though it stands drought fairly well once established.
- Feeding
- A monthly liquid feed, turning high-potash while it is fruiting.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Prune sparingly — every cut bleeds sticky latex.
- Overwintering
- Keep it above 12°C; it takes a cool spell better than most tropical fruit.
Through the year
- Apr–May Flowering
- May–Sep Fruit Set
- Sep–Dec Harvest
- Jan–Apr Harvest
Pests & problems
- Mealybugs Mealybugs in the leaf axils and along the stems
- Scale insects Scale insects on stems and leaf undersides — the commonest problem under glass
- Spider mites Red spider mite under glass in warm dry air
- Leaf spot Leaf spot (Phaeophleospora indica) in humid air
- Root & crown rot Root rot from overwatering, most likely in the cooler months
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- 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.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea
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.
- 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.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Spider mites
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Spider mites
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Predatory mites Phytoseiulus & AmblyseiusHunts Spider mites
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 Spider mites
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