Cardamom

Water

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

Needs about 1,600 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 700 mm it can use in a normal year, and 580 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 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
• Jul 34 °C / 25 °C
• Aug 33 °C / 24 °C
• Sep 32 °C / 23 °C
• Oct 30 °C / 17 °C
• Nov 25 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 18 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 21 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 27 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 33 °C / 19 °C
• May 38 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
• Jun 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)

Nights in December 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: organic carbon.

• Soil here is often too alkaline for it.
• Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
• Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
• Most fields here are short of iron.

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.