Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Sold at 4 mandis in your district.
₹2.5 lakh–₹3.7 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 3
After typical costs: ₹1.3 lakh–₹2.6 lakh an acre a year
- Needs care: Risky: 2 irrigations short
- Needs care: Frost risk in December
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 870 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 770 mm it can use in a normal year, and 610 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 32 °C / 21 °C
- Jul 28 °C / 21 °C
- Aug 27 °C / 21 °C
- Sep 27 °C / 19 °C
- Oct 25 °C / 15 °C
- Nov 21 °C / 10 °C
- Dec 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 15 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 18 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 23 °C / 11 °C
- Apr 29 °C / 16 °C
- May 32 °C / 20 °C
- Jun 32 °C / 21 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Nights in December 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: nitrogen, organic carbon, sulphur and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
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.
On rain alone it gets about 89% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 89% of this yield.
Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹7,500 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹9,500 a quintal, the middle of 15 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹2.8 lakh a year after typical costs.
- ₹4,500 2021
- ₹6,000 2022
- ₹5,250 2023
- ₹6,130 2025
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.