Collection: Jaboticaba Trees

Jaboticaba trees for sale at Everglades Farm are grown in our Homestead, Florida nursery and shipped as live specimens with strong roots. This rare Brazilian fruit tree fruits directly on trunk and branches, and Brazilian customers know it on sight. Sabara and Red Dwarf are in stock out of an extensive selection of eight; the other six sell out fast.

Jaboticaba Varieties and Cultivars Available

The jaboticaba varieties and cultivars available here cover eight trees, and the one you choose sets fruit color, fruit size and how young the tree bears. Sabara is the classic black-fruited jaboticaba and the heaviest producer of the fruiting varieties we carry, and Grimal carries the largest black fruit. The Red Dwarf hybrid, a red hybrid close to the esalq red jaboticaba type, is sweeter than the purple forms and small enough for a patio. Scarlet jaboticaba (Myrciaria regina) and White jaboticaba widen the color range, while Yellow, Sanford and Crown #2 give costate fruit you can eat partly green. All eight fruit March to April, and several repeat through the year. Growers asking about blue jaboticaba (Myrciaria vexator), Plinia aureana, Plinia phitrantha, Novak or Volcano Red (la vinotinto) mean the same genus.

Fruit Characteristics

Fruit characteristics are the reason people plant a jaboticaba instead of another tropical tree. The fruit-on-trunk habit gives the plant its exotic flare, and it is why the tree sits on the Brazilian coat of arms. Everything about this fruit is unusual, from where it forms to how briefly it keeps.

Where the fruit forms

White cottony flowers open straight out of the bark, and the fruit grows directly on trunk and branches instead of at the branch tips. A tree in full flush looks beaded from the ground up. Older wood carries the heaviest set, so hard pruning during flowering costs a crop.

Fruit size, skin and flesh

Each grape-like purple fruit is about an inch across and ripens from a light green color through red to dark purple-blue fruits. A thick skin surrounds thin, juicy flesh, and the white and yellow forms carry a slightly thicker skin than the dark colored fruits. The soft and juicy white flesh has a melting pulp holding one to four seeds that separate cleanly.

Flavor and yield

The flavor is a sweet and tart flavor most buyers compare to sweet grapes, with tropical flavor notes behind it. Anyone who has eaten a muscadine grape knows the texture: bite the grape-like fruit, the pulp slips out, the skin stays. Growers call it a sweet flavor with an acidic zing. The slightly bitter skins hold the tannin content, so leave the skin if you want it mild. Yield builds with age: a mature tree fruits five or six times a year. Fruit ferments three or four days after harvest, so use it fast.

Growth and Fruiting Information

Growth and fruiting information should decide your container size before you order. Jaboticaba is slow growing, and that shapes every other number here. Left unpruned it becomes a multi-trunked tree.

Mature size and plant height

Left alone a tree reaches 15 meters over decades. Pruned trees hold at 6 to 12 feet, and dwarf varieties such as the Red Dwarf stay bushy and mature at patio height. Plant height on arrival runs from 12 inches in a 1-gallon pot to 6 feet in a 15-gallon.

Fruiting age and frequency

Fruiting age depends on the variety and the propagation method. Grafted stock gives early fruiting, container-grown trees fruit in 3 to 6 years, seedling Sabara in 5 or more. Flowering and fruiting frequency reaches five or six flushes a year once mature, and the heaviest yield comes off older trees. Flowers set on fruit on old wood, so leave that wood alone and let new growth harden. Fruit color maturation runs green to red to near black, and only the last stage is ripe. Steady water through the growing season shortens the wait; drought stress lengthens it.

Growing environments

Suitability follows mature size. A 1-gallon or 3-gallon tree suits container culture on a patio, a 7-gallon a large pot indoors by a bright window, a 15-gallon in-ground landscape use. The root system is shallow, fibrous and dense, which is why trunk and branches carry a full crop in a pot.

Growing Zones and Climate Suitability

Growing zones and climate suitability decide whether your jaboticaba lives in the ground or on wheels. In-ground trees belong in a tropical area or subtropical one, USDA growing zones 9-11, where subtropical climates and tropical climates give the long warm season. Cold hardiness runs to roughly 26F, so USDA hardiness zones 9 through 11 suit in-ground planting. Cold tolerance is real but limited: a light frost is fine, sustained cold is not, so colder than zone 9 means patio growing zones 3-11 with frost protection. Container growing removes the zone limit, and it is how most of our northern customers keep a tree. Full sun gives the heaviest crops in Florida; partially shaded areas and filtered sunlight suit desert heat and the first season after transplanting. Night time temperatures matter more than daytime highs, and drought tolerance is poor at every age. The tree wants moist soil, slightly acidic soil around pH 5.5 to 6.5, and organic matter.

Planting and Care Instructions

Planting and care instructions for jaboticaba come down to water, acidity and patience.

1. Pot one size up, with open drainage holes, in peat-based potting soil mixed with compost to keep it slightly acidic. Container-grown trees resent standing water.
2. Watering requirements are what people get wrong. Keep the soil evenly moist, never let the root system dry out, water two or three times a week in summer.
3. Mulch two inches around the drip line, back from the trunk, while the tree is establishing roots. Shallow companion plants are fine at the edge.
4. Feed a well balanced fertilizer on a 10-10-10 formula, or a slow release nutrient, three or four times a season. Chelated iron corrects yellowing from alkaline water.
5. Give partial shade the first weeks, then full sun. Pruning is optional: take out crossing branches and damaged branches after a harvest, never during flowering.
6. Watch for fungal issues and rust in humid weather: space the branches, water at the base, treat early with copper fungicide.
7. The tree is self-pollinating, so one specimen fruits on its own.

Customer Reviews and Experiences

Customer reviews and experiences from buyers of this rare Brazilian fruit tree sit on each product page, and the pattern is consistent: quality packaging, a thriving plant with lush foliage and strong roots, trees larger than expected.

Blown away by the size of this plant. Well done! - Troy Picou, Sabara Jaboticaba

The tree is healthy, full and much more established than we expected. - Ryan O., Red Dwarf Jaboticaba

Online ordering brings the same questions every week, and our advice comes from what buyers write back. Buyers in mild, humidity-friendly coastal conditions report faster growth. Brazilian customers buy for childhood memories more than for the yield. Growers in zone 7b and colder keep the same beautiful and healthy tree alive indoors under lights, where burnt tips mean dry air rather than dry soil. Customer satisfaction here turns on support and expertise after delivery as much as on the plant, so write us before you write a review. Sale conditions are plain: potted, soil secured, time in transit two to five business days in the continental United States. Order yours today while Sabara and Red Dwarf are in stock.