Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹69,000–₹1.0 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 3
After typical costs: ₹20,000–₹54,000 an acre a year
- Suits: Rain is enough
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain is enough, even in a dry year.
Needs about 1,010 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 1,570 mm it can use in a normal year, and 1,350 mm in a dry year.
Heavy rain here can waterlog it. Grow it on raised beds or land that drains well.
Temperature
Grows best at 15–28 °C on average, and survives 12–36 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 32 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Jul 31 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Aug 32 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Sep 32 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Oct 31 °C / 24 °C
- Nov 29 °C / 19 °C
- Dec 26 °C / 14 °C
- Jan 25 °C / 12 °C
- Feb 29 °C / 15 °C
- Mar 32 °C / 19 °C
- Apr 33 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
- May 33 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 32 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Lemon: 8 out of 10 (good).
- Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
- Many fields here are short of zinc, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
- Most fields here are short of organic carbon.
Likes pH 6.5–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 20 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (its government crop records list none for your district). 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.
Mandi price through the year (January–April 2026, July 2026, September 2026): about ₹4,238 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹7,500 a quintal, the middle of 147 mandis across India (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹1.0 lakh a year after typical costs.
Prices are usually best in March.
Typical costs are about ₹49,000 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
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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.
-
Short of organic carbon Your soil is likely short of organic carbon.
Add 4 tonnes of compost or farmyard manure per acre before sowing, and plough crop leftovers back in instead of burning them.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.