Nutmeg

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 1,690 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 130 mm it can use in a normal year, and 80 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 40 °C / 27 °C
• Jul 37 °C / 27 °C
• Aug 35 °C / 26 °C
• Sep 34 °C / 24 °C
• Oct 33 °C / 18 °C
• Nov 28 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 23 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 19 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 23 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
• Mar 29 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
• Apr 36 °C / 19 °C
• May 41 °C / 25 °C
• Jun 40 °C / 27 °C

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

Soil

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

Not in the score: nitrogen and boron.

• Soil here is often more alkaline than it likes.
• Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
• Many fields here are short of sulphur, which it needs a lot.
• Most fields here are short of manganese.

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.