Thai Love Sapodilla

Bring the familiar sweetness of naseberry to your garden with the Thai Love Sapodilla Tree. Known as naseberry in Jamaica and chikoo or chiku in many other regions, sapodilla is a tropical favorite with naturally brown skin and a deliciously sweet interior.

When fully ripe, its flavor is often compared to a pear sweetened with brown sugar—a simple pleasure to enjoy fresh, chilled, or scooped straight from the fruit. ask.ifas.ufl.edu

Fruit flavor & texture

Sapodilla offers rich sweetness with brown-sugar notes. Its flesh softens as it ripens and may have a slightly granular texture, depending on the selection.

Enjoy ripe fruit:

• Fresh, halved and scooped with a spoon
• Chilled as a simple dessert
• Blended into smoothies
• Added to homemade frozen desserts

Remove all seeds before eating. Allow mature fruit to soften fully; unripe sapodilla can be unpleasantly astringent and contain sticky latex.

Fruit appearance & size

Your reference photo shows rounded to oval fruit with naturally russet-brown skin among green leaves. The understated exterior is part of sapodilla’s charm.

Thai Love fruit size and average weight: Not yet verified. We recommend adding measurements from your supplier or your own harvest before publishing a numerical average.

Tree growth & garden placement

Sapodilla is an evergreen tree that generally grows slowly but can become substantial over time. Regular pruning helps maintain an accessible canopy.

Plant in a location with room for future growth and maintenance. It should not be described as naturally dwarf unless your supplier confirms that characteristic for Thai Love. ask.ifas.ufl.edu

Harvest season & your Harvest Planner

UF/IFAS describes May–September as the main Florida sapodilla season, with some fruit potentially maturing outside that period. Cultivar seasons differ. ask.ifas.ufl.edu

For Thai Love, keep the harvest-month filters unassigned until your supplier or local observations confirm its timing. You can display:

“Harvest season: To be confirmed for this selection in our area.”

This keeps your Harvest Planner useful when customers compare trees for a more balanced food forest.

Plan your harvest before you plant.™

Thai Love Sapodilla Tree care

• Sunlight: Choose full sun.
• Soil: Provide good drainage. Sapodilla tolerates several soil types, including sandy soils.
• Watering: Water young plants consistently while establishing. Established trees are more drought-tolerant, but prolonged dry periods may require supplemental watering.
• Mulching: Mulch the root zone to help conserve moisture, keeping mulch away from the trunk.
• Fertilizing: Apply a suitable fruit-tree fertilizer according to the label and tree size.
• Pruning: Use selective pruning to manage height and spread. Avoid topping.
• Monitoring: Watch for scale insects and fruit flies; address problems according to their severity. ask.ifas.ufl.edu

Cold protection in Palm Bay

Protect young trees during frost and freezes. Young sapodilla may suffer severe injury around 30–32°F. Mature trees are more tolerant, but cold tolerance is not a guarantee against damage. ask.ifas.ufl.edu

Florida planting consideration: UF/IFAS assesses sapodilla as invasive in Central and South Florida and does not recommend planting it there. Include this information when helping customers choose a location and consider alternatives. ask.ifas.ufl.edu

Quick Growing Information