Sweet Orange (Mosambi)

Water

Rain falls about 2 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 810 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 20–30 °C on average, and survives 13–38 °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
• 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
• May 30 °C / 18 °C
• Jun 30 °C / 20 °C

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 Sweet Orange (Mosambi): 7 out of 10 (okay).

Not in the score: sulphur and boron.

• Soil here is often more alkaline than it likes.
• Most fields here are short of nitrogen.

Likes pH 5.0–6.0.

Money

Yield: about 67 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (no figures for your state).

A new planting gives its first real harvest after about 4 years. The money here is for plants already bearing.

On rain alone it gets about 89% of the water it needs, so the money here is worked at 89% of this yield.

Mandi price through the year (December 2025–November 2026): about ₹4,888 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹4,600 a quintal, the middle of 17 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹1.5 lakh a year after typical costs.

Prices are usually best in June.

Typical costs are about ₹1.3 lakh an acre: about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys. They are spent whatever the harvest.