Cardamom

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 1,420 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 670 mm it can use in a normal year, and 600 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 22–30 °C on average, and survives 10–35 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

• Jun 35 °C / 24 °C
• Jul 30 °C / 23 °C
• Aug 29 °C / 23 °C
• Sep 29 °C / 21 °C
• Oct 27 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
• Nov 23 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 19 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 16 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 20 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 25 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 31 °C / 18 °C
• May 35 °C / 23 °C
• Jun 35 °C / 24 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Nights in January can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.

Soil

Soil for Cardamom: 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: nitrogen, organic carbon, sulphur and boron.

• Soil here is often more alkaline than it likes.

Likes pH 5.5–6.0.

Money

Yield: about 1.6 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

A new planting gives its first real harvest after about 3 years. The money here is for plants already bearing.

Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.

Mandi price through the year (December 2025–May 2026, July–October 2026): about ₹2,56,375 a quintal across India's mandis.

Prices swing a lot from year to year, so income can be well above or below this range.

Prices are usually best in October.

Typical costs are about ₹1.7 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.