Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹70,000–₹1.0 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 3
After typical costs: ₹45,000–₹80,000 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 2,120 mm it can use in a normal year, and 1,890 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 30 °C / 24 °C
- Jul 28 °C / 23 °C
- Aug 29 °C / 24 °C
- Sep 30 °C / 24 °C
- Oct 31 °C / 24 °C
- Nov 32 °C / 23 °C
- Dec 32 °C / 22 °C
- Jan 32 °C / 22 °C
- Feb 33 °C / 23 °C
- Mar 34 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 34 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- May 33 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 30 °C / 24 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Lemon: 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: nitrogen.
- Soil here is often more acidic than it likes.
- Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
- Many fields here are short of boron, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of sulphur.
Likes pH 6.5–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 10 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 (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹8,650 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹10,500 a quintal, the middle of 25 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹81,000 a year after typical costs.
- ₹5,210 2021
- ₹6,850 2022
- ₹7,250 2023
- ₹9,160 2024
- ₹6,700 2025
Prices are usually best in October.
Typical costs are about ₹24,000 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 sulphur Your soil is likely short of sulphur.
Use single super phosphate instead of DAP, or add about 100 kg of gypsum per acre before sowing.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.