Mother goes in twice to get love apple (6)
I believe the answer is:
tomato
'love apple' is the definition.
(I know that love apple can be written as tomato)
'mother goes in twice to' is the wordplay.
'mother' becomes 'ma' (ma can mean mother).
'goes in' is an insertion indicator.
'twice' indicates the doubling of some letters.
'to' doubled is 'toto'.
'ma' placed within 'toto' is 'TOMATO'.
'get' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for tomato that I've seen before include "A motto, oddly, for this fruit" , "Fruit-vegetable" , "Salad plant" , "A motto turned out to be fruit or veg" , "A glossy red fruit eaten as a vegetable" .)