I’ve been lusting after the ‘Silas Woods’ sapodilla, a dwarf, ever-bearing form of this tropical fruit, ever since I first heard of it. I finally got a plant of this variety! Gonna plant this one in the ground in my tropical fruit greenhouse, so I’ll hopefully be eating fresh-off-the-tree sapodillas for much of the year. Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota), also called chico sapote, nispero, sawo, or sapota, tastes like a pear that’s been soaked in brown sugar. I got my plant from the excellent tropical fruit farm and nursery Sulcata Grove, located in Sarasota, on Florida’s west coast. Since my tree is still small, the first photo here is a re-post from Celeste at Sulcata Grove of what the fruit set on a mature tree of ‘Silas Woods’ sapodilla can look like. And when I say ‘mature tree’, what that means in this case is that the tree was TWO YEARS OLD, and was loaded with this much fruit. When she posted this photo in August, Celeste said, “This variety just keeps producing. This tree was planted in 2015. We harvested about 20 ripe fruits yesterday, and the tree is still loaded today. Every time I harvest or thin the fruits, the tree just flowers again.” Note in the pic how the fruits are in all different stages of development – that’s a testament to the extended season of ripening.
One “problem” people people have reported with ‘Silas Woods’ is that the tree produces such insane quantities of fruit, it can have branches break from carrying all that weight. I consider that a good problem to have – when the need arises, I’ll be ready to put supports under heavily loaded branches.
Celeste says that at Sulcata Grove they usually have this variety in stock, 3-gallon grafted plants for $50, sales by appointment. They also sell lots of other kinds of fruit trees, with banana varieties a specialty. I want to mention as well that Celeste & her husband Craig are extremely knowledgeable about tropical fruit, and very nice people. They post lots of informative stuff on Instagram, so they’re a good account to follow there.
Reportedly, in tropical climates this variety can produce all year long. My greenhouse is a pretty minimal cold-protection structure, which keeps temperatures from going below freezing, but overnight lows inside can dip down to chilly near-freezing temperatures all winter. That’s likely to slow down growth and fruit production quite a bit during winter for this tropical tree, so I probably won’t get true year-round fruit ripening, but I’m hoping to be eating fresh sapodillas for many months of the year.
On a side note, sapodilla and several related trees were the original source of chewing gum – the sap hardens into a chewy substance called chicle. The Wrigleys gum company used chicle to make chewing gum until 1952 before switching to a petrochemical product as their gum base. Several small companies still make chewing gum based on chicle.
Another sapodilla variety I’ve heard of that reportedly is dwarf and highly productive is called ‘Makok’. I’m on the lookout for that one. Do you have any experience with it? Let me know in the comments.
#Manilkara #Manilkarazapota #Sapotaceae #sapodilla
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Florida Fruit Geek 
This looks like a chiku… that’s what we call it in South East Asia..!
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Hi Sone, thanks for commenting! I forgot about that name for it, but yup, chiku is another name for the same fruit. This species is originally from Central America, but apparently it got spread all around the world by sailors hundreds of years ago – so long ago that it’s gotten fully integrated into local cultures worldwide, and has accumulated lots of regional names.
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Hi Craig,
I have both “Silas Wood” and “Makok ” growing in my front yard here in South Florida. I got interested in these two varieties after reading about them in Logee’s book on growing tropical fruit plants in containers. The trees are over 4 years old now and seem to always have fruit. Makok came into production first and has wonderful chicken egg size fruits that are very sweet. Silas woods has larger fruits, and of the two is my favorite. I keep the trees about as tall as me and they are very happy to stay small. When hurricane Irma passed through neither of them uprooted or experienced any significant damage. I think there are still some growers in the Redlands who use Sapodilla trees as windbreaks. They seem to be very tough. In the Florida Keys I’ve seen this plant thriving and producing lots of fruit very close to saltwater. There are huge trees near where I live that are well over 40 ft tall.
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Hi Sam, thanks for commenting. That’s some great info! I don’t know how I somehow missed being aware of these dwarf sapodilla varieties until a few months ago – I’m trying to fill my greenhouse with any dwarf tropical fruit trees I can get my hands on. I’m glad to hear that you prefer the flavor of Silas Woods to Makok. I heard someone raving on Tropical Fruit Forum about how Makok has better flavor, good to know that feeling isn’t universal (since Silas is the one I have so far). So exciting to hear that these trees, four years old and pruned to the height of a person, seem to always have fruit. I’m so excited about this fruit tree aquisition!
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Id be happy to trade you some makok seeds or cutting, for similar silas woods.
I’m in the Boynton Beach area.
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Right now I just have one small plant of Silas Woods, so it’ll be a while till I have any propagation material available. And I’m up near Gainesville. I do have my eye on Makok as another good one to get in the future – sounds like another great dwarfish cultivar.
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Hi Craig, what a great find! Do you know whether Silas Woods can be started from seed and grow true to type? I live all the way in Singapore and I’m dying to get my hands on one but they’re just not available here. Serious case of envy over your amazing fruit trees.
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My understanding is that ‘Silas Woods’ is a clonal variety, and must be propagated vegetatively, by grafting. It might very well be that many seedlings of this variety will retain the dwarfish, ever-bearing characteristics of the parent, but I don’t know for sure. That would be a great question to ask the knowledgeable fruit experts at tropicalfruitforum.com. You could also ask if anyone knows of sources in your area of this or similar selections of sapodilla. Good luck!
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That’s what I thought.. Oh well. I will try asking around. Thanks for your input!
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Hello
i loking buy 2plants the sapodilla brown sugar + 20 semences
I livr from morocco
Help me please
Thank you
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Hi Abdelhak. It’s very difficult to ship plants across international borders; your best bet would be to find someone in your own country who has the plants available that your looking for. If that doesn’t work out, you might be able to find someone outside your country who can mail you some sapodilla seeds (regulations are less stringent about allowing seeds across borders than whole plants).
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