Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹47,000–₹71,000
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 3
After typical costs: ₹6,000–₹30,000 an acre a year
- Needs care: Risky: 4 irrigations short
- Needs care: Frost risk in December
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 4 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 910 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 740 mm it can use in a normal year, and 650 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 31 °C / 20 °C
- Jul 27 °C / 20 °C
- Aug 27 °C / 19 °C
- Sep 27 °C / 18 °C
- Oct 25 °C / 14 °C
- Nov 21 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 19 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 24 °C / 12 °C
- Apr 30 °C / 16 °C
- May 32 °C / 18 °C
- Jun 31 °C / 20 °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: 8 out of 10 (good).
- 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 17 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.
On rain alone it gets about 81% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 81% of this yield.
Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹4,275 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹3,600 a quintal, the middle of 3 mandis in your state (latest 11 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹8,000 a year after typical costs.
- ₹2,950 2022
- ₹2,800 2023
- ₹3,410 2024
- ₹3,660 2025
Prices are usually best in April.
Typical costs are about ₹41,000 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
-
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.