Garlic

Water

Rain is enough in a normal year. Keep one irrigation ready for a dry year.

Needs about 460 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain in its months gives about 430 mm it can use in a normal year (220 mm in a dry one), and the soil holds about 30 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 32 °C / 24 °C
• Nov 30 °C / 23 °C
• Dec 29 °C / 22 °C
• Jan 30 °C / 21 °C
• Feb 31 °C / 22 °C

Soil

Soil for Garlic: 7 out of 10 (okay).

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

• The pH here suits it.
• Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
• Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 6.0–6.6.

Money

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

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 ₹3.1 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.