Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across your state.
Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
- Doesn't suit: Too cold in january
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 660 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 270 mm it can use in a normal year, and 200 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 15–28 °C on average, and survives 12–36 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 23 °C / 12 °C
- Jul 22 °C / 13 °C
- Aug 22 °C / 12 °C
- Sep 20 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Oct 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 11 °C / 1 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 6 °C / -4 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 3 °C / -6 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 5 °C / -4 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 9 °C / -1 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- May 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 23 °C / 12 °C
Nights in October can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.
Soil
Soil for Lemon: 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: sulphur and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
Likes pH 6.5–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 46 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state). Government figures count it with lime.
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–November 2026): about ₹9,200 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹9,500 a quintal, the middle of 15 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov).
- ₹4,530 2021
- ₹6,630 2022
- ₹5,130 2023
- ₹9,380 2024
- ₹6,380 2025
Prices swing a lot from year to year, so income can be well above or below this range.
Prices are usually best in April.
Typical costs are about ₹1.1 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
-
Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.
Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.