How to grow saffron

At a glance

Planting window

Mid-August to mid-September, finished before the autumn rains

Duration

Plant in late August; flowers pick mid-October to early November; the bed lasts 6–8 years

Climate

Dry, sunny autumn with days near 23–25 °C at flowering and cold winters; the Kashmir valley sits around 1,850 m

Soil

Well-drained karewa loam; calcareous clay loams also work; pH 6.3–8.3

Water need

Low · about 300–450 mm a season

Plants

About 2 lakh corms per acre at 20 × 10 cm — roughly 2 tonnes of corms

Spacing

20 × 10 cm (five lakh corms per hectare at 20 × 10 cm; 10 g a corm is about 5 tonnes per hectare.)

Yield

About 5 kg of dry saffron per hectare — near 2 kg per acre — where the bed is irrigated and well kept; older rainfed beds give half that

What to do, and when

Dates assume planting around 25 Aug. Change the plan to shift them.

• 2–5 weeks before — Prepare and drain the bed: Deep ploughing, farmyard manure worked in, and beds raised so water never stands.
• 1–2 weeks before — Grade and treat the corms: Keep corms over 2 cm across; discard anything soft or lesioned; treat before planting.
• Day 0 — Plant the corms: 20 × 10 cm, 15–20 cm deep, finished before mid-September.
• Months 1–2 — Sprinkle every week: About 70 m³ per hectare at 7-day intervals until mid-October, if the rains have not come.
• Months 2–3 — Pick flowers at dawn: Whole flowers picked by hand in the early morning, before the sun opens them fully.
• Months 2–3 — Separate and dry the same day: Pull the three red stigmas from each flower and dry them the same day — the day’s delay is what costs you the grade.
• Month 3 — Feed the corm: After flowering, nitrogen and potash go in to build next year’s corm.
• Months 3–8 — Leave the leaves: Green leaves through winter are next season’s flowers. Do not cut or graze them.
• Months 2–4 — Sell by grade: Get the lot GI-certified where you can; the certified Kashmir price is a different market from loose saffron.

Varieties to consider

Buy certified seed or planting material from an authorised source.

• Kashmiri Mongra (lachha grade) — The GI-tagged Kashmir type: only the red stigma, no yellow style. Commands the highest price.
• Local Pampore selection — What most Pampore growers replant from their own corms; performance depends on corm size, not on a released name.

Water

• Sprinkler about 70 m³ per hectare every 7 days from 25 August to 15 October, then nothing until spring
• Never let it go short at: Two weeks before flowering · Corm sprouting after planting
• Traditional Kashmir beds are rainfed and suffer in dry autumns; sprinklers under the National Saffron Mission are what lifted yields.

Nutrition

Nutrition feeds the corm, not the flower. This year’s flowers were decided by last year’s corm.

• Dose: Farmyard manure about 17.5 tonnes per hectare, with a modest inorganic top-up for corm quality
• Bed preparation: all the farmyard manure, worked in deep before planting.
• After flowering (November): nitrogen and potash to feed corm multiplication for next year.
• Late winter: leave the leaves alone — they are building next season’s corm.
• Organic base: Saffron responds to well-rotted manure more reliably than to fertiliser; most Kashmir beds are effectively organic.

Pests and diseases to watch

Prevent first; spray only when needed, with a product registered for the crop, at label dose.

• Porcupine and rodents (undefined) — undefined Treatment: undefined
• Saffron bulb mite (undefined) — undefined Treatment: undefined
• Corm rot (undefined) — undefined Treatment: undefined
• Flower abortion in a wet autumn (undefined) — undefined Treatment: undefined

Yield and economics

Corms are most of the first-year cost and the bed then yields for six to eight years, so judge saffron over the life of the bed, not one season. Grade decides the price: pure red mongra sells far above lachha with style attached.

• Cost per acre: undefined
• Yield per acre: undefined
• Price: ₹1.5–3 lakh a kilogram depending on grade and GI certification
• Margin: undefined

Where these numbers come from

• Saffron production technology in Kashmir, North India Journal of Medicinal Plants Studies, 2020, drawing on SKUAST-Kashmir practice. Planting window, corm rate, spacing, irrigation and corm rot management.
• Kashmir saffron area and productivity, 2025 Greater Kashmir, 2025: 3,665 hectares — Pampore 3,200, Budgam 300, Srinagar 165 — and productivity near 5 kg per hectare under the National Saffron Mission.
• Common grower practice in north India Widely followed by farmers; confirm with your KVK for your block.
• Agriculture Novel indicative estimate A planning number, not a quote. Replace it with your own costs and your mandi’s price.