Sweet Orange (Mosambi)

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 20–30 °C on average, and survives 13–38 °C.

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

• Jun 39 °C / 26 °C (outside its best range)
• Jul 34 °C / 25 °C
• Aug 33 °C / 24 °C
• Sep 32 °C / 23 °C
• Oct 30 °C / 17 °C
• Nov 25 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
• Dec 20 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
• Jan 18 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
• Feb 21 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
• 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 Sweet Orange (Mosambi): 8 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: organic carbon.

• Soil here is often too alkaline for 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 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 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 ₹5,313 a quintal across mandis in your state.

This week: about ₹4,750 a quintal, the middle of 3 mandis in your state (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹1.3 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.