Tomato

A monsoon crop. Sow in Jun–Jul, harvest in Oct–Nov.

Check it on your land
Season
Kharif
JJASONDJFMAM

Sowing Growing Harvest

57% of its area. Also grown in rabi, summer.
Ready in
130 days
about 4½ months
Grows best at
20–27 °C
0 °C survives 7–35 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Kharif 57% of its area
Rabi 43% of its area
Summer
Today: kharif harvest
J J A S O N D J F M A M
Sow Growing Harvest
The year starts in June, with the monsoon. Your district can shift a few weeks.

Sowing Growing Harvest

Will it grow on your land?

Palakkad Kerala
Water
Season

Good fit in Palakkad

Tomato

JJASONDJFMAM

Sow in June, harvest around October

This season's sowing time (June–July) is over.

No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop. Sold at 17 mandis in your district.

₹92,000–₹1.4 lakh

per acre a season, before costs

After typical costs: ₹46,000–₹92,000 an acre a season

  • Suits: Rain is enough
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain is enough, even in a dry year.

Needs about 500 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 840 mm it can use in a normal year, and 570 mm in a dry year.

Heavy rain here can waterlog it. Grow it on raised beds or land that drains well.

Temperature

Grows best at 20–27 °C on average, and survives 7–35 °C.

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

  • Jun 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Jul 29 °C / 23 °C
  • Aug 30 °C / 23 °C
  • Sep 30 °C / 24 °C
  • Oct 31 °C / 24 °C (outside its best range)

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Tomato: 9 out of 10 (good).

Not in the score: nitrogen.

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

Likes pH 5.5–6.8.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 35 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (its government crop records list none for your district).

Mandi price at this season's harvest so far (October–November 2026): about ₹3,300 a quintal at mandis in your district.

This week: about ₹2,800 a quintal, the middle of 7 mandis in your district (latest 13 Nov). At that price an acre would leave about ₹52,000 a season after typical costs.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹1,800 2021
  2. ₹2,200 2022
  3. ₹2,550 2023
  4. ₹3,200 2024
  5. ₹2,450 2025

Prices are usually best in December.

Typical costs are about ₹46,000 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 sulphur Your soil is likely short of sulphur.

    Use single super phosphate instead of DAP, or add about 100 kg of gypsum per acre before sowing.

    Few local farmers add it to this crop, so it's an easy place to get ahead.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Urea 28%
  • Urea Ammonium Phosphate 5%
  • NPK Mixture 1%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
85 kg
DAP
53 kg
MOP
40 kg

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

See every crop that suits Palakkad

What it needs

Temperature

20–27 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 7–35 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

The check above works out its water need on your land.

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 5 to 7.5.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen and potassium
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
85 kg about 2 bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
53 kg about 1 bag of 50 kg
MOP potash
40 kg about ¾ of a 50 kg bag

Hybrids often get more; borax: 4 kg for one acre where boron is short

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • Leaf curl virus
    Disease

    Look for

    Leaves curl and shrink and plants stay short; spread by whitefly.

    What to do first

    Raise seedlings under net, grow a resistant hybrid, pull out sick plants and use yellow sticky traps.

  • Early blight
    Disease

    Look for

    Brown spots with rings on the older leaves.

    What to do first

    Spray mancozeb when spots appear. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Late blight
    Disease

    Look for

    Dark water-soaked patches on leaves and fruit in cool, cloudy weather.

    What to do first

    Spray mancozeb before it shows in cool, cloudy weather; switch to metalaxyl with mancozeb once it appears. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Fruit borer
    Pest

    Look for

    Round holes in the fruit with caterpillars inside.

    What to do first

    Use pheromone traps and a marigold border; spray when caterpillars are many. Follow the label or your KVK for the dose.

  • Bacterial wilt
    Disease

    Look for

    Plants wilt suddenly while still green.

    What to do first

    Rotate crops, avoid waterlogging and grow a resistant variety.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a season

₹97,600

Yield India's average
104.1 quintals an acre
× Price harvest price this season so far (Oct–Nov 2026)
₹2,250 a quintal
= Income
₹2,34,200
− Costs about half of what a usual harvest earns (2023–2025), as in farm cost surveys
−₹1,36,600
= Left
₹97,600

This week tomato sells at about ₹2,200 a quintal: India's middle price at 666 mandis, latest 13 Nov. At that price an acre would leave about ₹92,400 a season.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹1,87,400 to ₹2,81,100 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
December, ₹3,000 a quintal
Lowest
March, ₹1,275 a quintal
₹1,275
₹3,000
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Nov 2026).

Latest prices near Palakkad Today's price across India

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
20.6 lakh acres
2025-26
Average yield
104.1 quintals an acre (25.7 tonnes a hectare)
2025-26
Most area
Odisha
13% of India's

States that grow it

Each state's share of India's production, in its latest year with figures (2025-26). Tap a state to open it.

Source: Horticulture area & production statistics (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

No recent district figures for this crop.