Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Sold at 2 mandis in your district.
Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
- Suits: Ideal temperatures
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 1,160 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 320 mm it can use in a normal year, and 260 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 40 °C / 28 °C (outside its best range)
- Jul 36 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
- Aug 34 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Sep 34 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Oct 34 °C / 19 °C
- Nov 29 °C / 13 °C
- Dec 23 °C / 8 °C
- Jan 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 25 °C / 10 °C
- Mar 30 °C / 15 °C
- Apr 38 °C / 21 °C (outside its best range)
- May 41 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 40 °C / 28 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Lemon: 8 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: nitrogen, copper and boron.
- Soil here is often more alkaline than it likes.
- Most fields here are short of organic carbon.
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–March 2026, May–October 2026): about ₹4,500 a quintal at mandis in your district.
This week: about ₹7,800 a quintal, the middle of 11 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov).
- ₹3,250 2023
- ₹3,560 2024
- ₹2,380 2025
Prices are usually best in September.
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
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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.