Lemon
Holds the land all year
Counted with lime in government figures. Priced from mandis across your state.
₹2.9 lakh–₹4.4 lakh
per acre a year, before costs
once bearing, from about year 3
After typical costs: ₹98,000–₹2.4 lakh an acre a year
- Needs care: Risky: 6 irrigations short
- Needs care: Warm in June
- Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Rain falls about 6 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.
Needs about 1,050 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 790 mm it can use in a normal year, and 550 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 35 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
- Jul 33 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Aug 32 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Sep 32 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- Oct 32 °C / 25 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 30 °C / 22 °C
- Dec 29 °C / 20 °C
- Jan 29 °C / 20 °C
- Feb 30 °C / 21 °C
- Mar 33 °C / 23 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 35 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
- May 37 °C / 28 °C (outside its best range)
- Jun 35 °C / 27 °C (outside its best range)
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Soil
Soil for Lemon: 8 out of 10 (good).
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of zinc, which it needs a lot.
- Many fields here are short of boron, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 6.5–7.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 81 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 76% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 76% of this yield.
Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹6,000 a quintal across mandis in your state.
This week: about ₹3,200 a quintal, the middle of 3 mandis in your state (latest 12 Nov). At that price an acre would lose about ₹613 a year at typical costs.
- ₹2,250 2021
- ₹2,560 2022
- ₹2,560 2023
- ₹3,910 2024
- ₹2,300 2025
Prices are usually best in September.
Typical costs are about ₹2.0 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 boron Your soil is likely short of boron.
Mix 4 kg of borax per acre into the soil before sowing.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.