Grows best at
15–28 °C
0 °C survives 12–36 °C 40 °C

Will it grow on your land?

Puducherry Puducherry
Water
Season

Possible in Puducherry, with effort

Lemon

Holds the land all year

Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across India.

₹1.6 lakh–₹2.5 lakh

per acre a year, before costs

once bearing, from about year 3

After typical costs: ₹52,000–₹1.3 lakh an acre a year

  • Needs care: Risky: 7 irrigations short
  • Needs care: Warm in June
  • Needs care: Soil 7/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 7 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 1,130 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 800 mm it can use in a normal year, and 570 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 37 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jul 35 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • Aug 34 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
  • Sep 34 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
  • Oct 32 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
  • Nov 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Dec 29 °C / 22 °C
  • Jan 30 °C / 21 °C
  • Feb 31 °C / 22 °C
  • Mar 33 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
  • Apr 35 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
  • May 37 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jun 37 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Lemon: 7 out of 10 (okay).

Not in the score: organic carbon, sulphur and boron.

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
  • Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 6.5–7.0.

How the soil score works

Money

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 71% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 71% of this yield.

Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹6,250 a quintal across India's mandis.

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 ₹1.3 lakh a year after typical costs.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹3,030 2021
  2. ₹4,050 2022
  3. ₹3,710 2023
  4. ₹6,000 2024
  5. ₹4,410 2025

Prices swing a lot from year to year, so income can be well above or below this range.

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.

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.

  • Short of potassium Your soil is likely short of potassium.

    Add about a quarter more potash (MOP) than the usual dose.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

See every crop that suits Puducherry

What it needs

Temperature

15–28 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 12–36 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

The check above works out its water need on your land.

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 5.5 to 8.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • K Needs plenty of potassium, zinc, iron and boron
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

Not covered yet. Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra for the dose.

Watch out for

Not covered yet. Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to watch for.

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
April, ₹9,500 a quintal
Lowest
January, ₹3,500 a quintal
₹3,500
₹9,500
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Puducherry Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Government figures count lemon with lime, so lemon has no figures of its own. See where lime grows.

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

No recent district figures for this crop.