Cardamom

Water

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

Needs about 1,460 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 770 mm it can use in a normal year, and 650 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 / 20 °C
• Jul 24 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
• Aug 25 °C / 19 °C
• Sep 26 °C / 19 °C
• Oct 27 °C / 19 °C
• Nov 27 °C / 19 °C
• Dec 27 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 27 °C / 17 °C
• Feb 29 °C / 18 °C
• Mar 30 °C / 20 °C
• Apr 30 °C / 21 °C
• May 29 °C / 21 °C
• Jun 26 °C / 20 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

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

Not in the score: nitrogen and sulphur.

• Soil here is often more alkaline than it likes.
• Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 5.5–6.0.

Money

Yield: about 0.4 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 ₹2,52,750 a quintal across mandis in your state.

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

Prices are usually best in August.

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.