Opera singer's secret to enormous home-grown lemons

A classically trained opera singer, Raffaele Pierno credits his sizeable citrus fruit to his singing.

With a zest for performing but no audience during COVID-19, the Italian tenor started practising in front of his Brisbane lemon tree, but he never could've predicted what would happen next.

"The lemon production was very normal, but since I start(ed) to sing to the lemon tree, I('ve) found out in six months, the lemons were growing in size," Pierno said.

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With no gardening skills to speak of, Pierno said his voice is the only care the lemon tree receives and it doesn't even get watered.

"I was (away) three months ... there was no increasing of (the) size of the lemons. They were ... 100 grams only. Since I (have) come back, the lemons start(ed) to grow again."

His lemons are now weighing in at over half a kilogram each and he's made serenading the tree part of his everyday morning routine.

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"When it comes 10 o'clock, 10.30am, 11 o'clock my voice is warmed up. I think the full voice is the one (that) gets results, absolutely no doubt," Pierno said.

Luckily for Pierno, his neighbours don't mind his morning melodies.

His neighbours told A Current Affair: "We hear him quite a bit and it's quite nice just to sit here out the back and listen to him singing."

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Some even said his singing is helping their garden too.

"My herbs have been growing well, so look, yeah he can keep singing if it helps mine," one neighbour said.

Pierno has no plans to quit belting out his opera classics and wants everyone to take away a simple message: when life gives you lemons, make sure you sing to them.