Nutmeg

Water

Rain falls about 10 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 1,190 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 720 mm it can use in a normal year, and 600 mm in a dry year.

Temperature

Grows best at 22–34 °C on average, and survives 12–38 °C.

Here, in its growing months (day / night):

• Jun 30 °C / 20 °C
• Jul 27 °C / 20 °C
• Aug 26 °C / 19 °C
• Sep 26 °C / 18 °C (outside its best range)
• Oct 24 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
• Nov 20 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 16 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 13 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 16 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 21 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 26 °C / 15 °C (outside its best range)
• May 30 °C / 18 °C
• Jun 30 °C / 20 °C

Nights in December can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.

Soil

Soil for Nutmeg: 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: sulphur and boron.

• The pH here suits it.
• Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 6.0–7.0.

Money

Yield: about 3.0 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

A new planting gives its first real harvest after about 6 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 at an earlier harvest (June–August 2025): about ₹25,000 a quintal across India's mandis.

Prices are usually best in May.

Typical costs are about ₹41,000 an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.