Cardamom

Water

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

Needs about 1,480 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 730 mm it can use in a normal year, and 680 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 26 °C / 19 °C
• Jul 24 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• Aug 24 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• Sep 25 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• Oct 26 °C / 19 °C
• Nov 26 °C / 18 °C
• Dec 26 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 27 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 29 °C / 17 °C
• Mar 31 °C / 19 °C
• Apr 30 °C / 20 °C
• May 30 °C / 20 °C
• Jun 26 °C / 19 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

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

Not in the score: nitrogen.

• Soil here is often more alkaline than it likes.

Likes pH 5.5–6.0.

Money

Yield: about 1.0 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).

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.