Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹2.2 lakh–₹3.3 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 3
After typical costs: ₹1.1 lakh–₹2.2 lakh an acre a year
- Needs care: Risky: 5 irrigations short
- Needs care: Frost risk in December
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 5 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 1,040 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 820 mm it can use in a normal year, and 660 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 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Jul 34 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Aug 33 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)
- Sep 32 °C / 23 °C
- Oct 30 °C / 17 °C
- Nov 25 °C / 11 °C
- Dec 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 18 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 21 °C / 9 °C
- Mar 27 °C / 14 °C
- Apr 33 °C / 19 °C
- May 38 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
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: 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: organic carbon.
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of zinc, which it needs a lot.
- Many fields here are short of iron, which it needs a lot.
- Most fields here are short of nitrogen.
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.
On rain alone it gets about 79% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 79% of this yield.
Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹7,563 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹8,250 a quintal, the middle of 4 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹1.9 lakh a year after typical costs.
- ₹4,500 2021
- ₹5,780 2022
- ₹5,390 2023
- ₹9,160 2024
- ₹5,380 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
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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 iron Your soil is likely short of iron.
Spray ferrous sulphate, 5 g per litre of water, when young leaves turn yellow.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.