How to stop lemon fruit falling off tree?

[nipanwar]

Hi all,

I have lemon tree, planted 6 months ago.

I bears a lot of flowers and some start turning into fruit but eventually the fruit falls off. Is there any special care or watering need when it flower turns into small fruit?

These days I am watering it every 3rd day.

No water clogging in the area.

[nipanwar]

Also, sometime I do see 1-2 black ants crawling on the plant, not sure if this needs any attention 

[JacobZ]

Hi @nipanwar,

Thank you for your question about your young lemon tree.

At this stage in your lemon tree's development, you should not expect it to produce fruit. Generally, lemon trees will only be strong enough to produce full-sized fruit after 3-5 years.

It is actually in your best interest for the first 1-3 years to remove the flowers so the lemon tree can focus its energy on developing strong roots and healthy branches, rather than producing fruit. By doing this, you encourage better growth and a more productive tree in the long run, ensuring it will bear larger, healthier fruit once it's fully established.

Your watering schedule sounds good, but you should check how moist the soil is before watering. If the top 5cm of soil is still wet, you can wait another day before checking again. Overwatering can stress the plant, so checking the soil regularly is good practice.

The ants don't sound like cause for concern. Insects are often an indicator of good health and should only be considered an issue if they begin to damage the plant. I'd suggest keeping an eye on them, but not worrying about them.

If you haven't already, a slow-release fertiliser such as this Citrus and Fruit Controlled Release Fertiliser would certainly be beneficial for your plant and would help give it the nutrients it needs to thrive at this stage of its development.

You might like to have a look at How To Grow And Care For a Lemon Tree for some additional information.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob