Garlic

Water

Rain falls about 3 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 390 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 90 mm it can use in a normal year (40 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 200 mm from the monsoon at sowing.

Temperature

Grows best at 18–30 °C on average, and survives 7–35 °C.

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

• Oct 28 °C / 21 °C
• Nov 26 °C / 16 °C
• Dec 23 °C / 13 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 23 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 26 °C / 13 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Garlic: 5 out of 10 (poor).

Not in the score: salt, sulphur, zinc and 4 more.

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

Likes pH 6.0–6.6.

Money

Yield: about 33 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

On rain alone it gets about 74% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 74% of this yield.

Mandi price at last season's harvest (March–April 2026): about ₹6,473 a quintal across India's mandis.

This week: about ₹12,000 a quintal, the middle of 196 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹2.0 lakh a season after typical costs.

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

Prices are usually best in November.

Typical costs are about ₹88,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2024–2026), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.