PPI (Ci) 1
The low-elevation, drought-tolerant selection: about 980 kg of total bark per hectare, 25% above the Pechiparai local, and a tree that can be kept for 50 years.
Quick facts
- Type
- Selection from open-pollinated seedlings (TNAU release)
- Season
- All seasons
- Maturity period
- Suitable for coppicing at 18 to 24 month intervals; the tree can be retained for up to 50 years
- Seed rate
- Planted as 10 to 12 month old nursery seedlings or rooted cuttings — about 2,500 plants per hectare at 2 × 2 m or about 1,100 at 3 × 3 m, plus 10% extra for gap-filling.
- Expected yield
- About 980 kg bark/ha — 248.42 kg quills plus 731.58 kg chips and dust — 25% above the Pechiparai local
- Suitable soil
- Wide range of soils, including sandy and lateritic ground
- Release
- Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Horticultural Research Station, Pechiparai, 2003 (TNAU's spice-crop variety list).
About this variety
PPI (Ci) 1 is the cinnamon selection released by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University from the open-pollinated seedling germplasm maintained at its Horticultural Research Station, Pechiparai, in Kanyakumari district. TNAU describes it as tolerant to drought, resistant to pests and diseases, suitable for coppicing at 18 to 24 month intervals, with good regeneration capacity and a tree that can be retained for up to 50 years. June and July are the best planting months. It yields about 980 kg of bark per hectare — 248.42 kg of quills and 731.58 kg of chips and dust — which TNAU puts at 25% above the Pechiparai local.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose PPI (Ci) 1 if your land is low — 100 to 500 m — with high rainfall, if dry spells are a real risk, and if you have a buyer for chips and dust as well as quills, since three-quarters of its 980 kg comes off in that form. Choose YCD 1 instead above 500 m, where TNAU recommends it and where you get about 360 kg of proper quills plus a big leaf crop. Choose IISR Navashree for the best bark recovery per shoot anywhere in India, or IISR Nithyashree if oleoresin and eugenol-rich leaf oil are what you are selling.
Key characteristics
Sowing & cultivation
- Sowing timeJune–July is the best season for this selection (TNAU); the crop as a whole can be planted from June to December.
- Seed ratePlanted as 10 to 12 month old nursery seedlings or rooted cuttings — about 2,500 plants per hectare at 2 × 2 m or about 1,100 at 3 × 3 m, plus 10% extra for gap-filling.
- SpacingPits of 60 cm cube at 2 m × 2 m (TNAU); the Karnataka package also allows 3 m × 3 m with 50 cm pits.
- Sowing methodFill the pit with topsoil and 10 kg of farmyard manure and plant one seedling or rooted cutting under partial shade, with a temporary pandal for the first season and a drainage channel on sloping ground.
- IrrigationProtective watering in summer is beneficial (TNAU), and the first two to three years need twice-weekly summer watering. This selection is described as drought-tolerant, which matters most in the dry spells between the May and November harvests.
- FertilizerTNAU's table: 20 g N, 18 g P and 25 g K per plant in the first year, the same added every year, reaching 200 g N, 180 g P and 250 g K with 20 kg farmyard manure a plant from the tenth year. Split in two, May–June and September–November.
- HarvestingCoppice at 18 to 24 month intervals, cutting shoots in May and again in November as soon as the rains cease. Bark is peeled, rolled, scraped and dried; what will not roll into a quill is sold as chips, quillings and featherings, and on this selection that fraction is large — 731.58 kg of the 980 kg per hectare.
Soil & climate
Soil
- Suitable soil
- Wide range of soils; sandy or lateritic ground with humus suits cinnamon best
- Irrigation
- Free drainage for young plants; a channel from each pit on a slope
Climate
- Maturity
- Hot and moist, average about 27°C
- Irrigation
- High rainfall; the crop takes about 150–250 cm a year
- Climate
- TNAU records it as well adapted to lower elevations of 100 to 500 m with high rainfall and a wide range of soils.
Yield & maturity
Maturity period
Suitable for coppicing at 18 to 24 month intervals; the tree can be retained for up to 50 years
Expected yield
About 980 kg bark/ha — 248.42 kg quills plus 731.58 kg chips and dust — 25% above the Pechiparai local
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
Pest & disease considerations
Major diseases
Management notes
- TNAU calls this selection resistant to pests and diseases, so routine protective spraying is usually unnecessary — watch first, spray only if a problem appears.
- Leaf spot, if it does appear: 1% Bordeaux mixture or 0.25% copper oxychloride (TNAU).
- Shoot borer: a monthly smear of carbaryl 50 WP at 2 g per litre on stems and branches; for coffee red borer, trunk injection with 20 days before bark harvest.
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- The highest total bark figure of the Indian selections — about 980 kg per hectare, 25% above the Pechiparai local.
- Drought-tolerant, which is the trait that matters on rainfed lateritic ground in the dry months.
- TNAU describes it as resistant to pests and diseases.
- The tree can be retained for up to 50 years, against about 20 for YCD 1.
- Built for low elevations of 100 to 500 m, where the hill selections are out of their band.
Things to consider
- Only 248.42 kg of the 980 kg is quills — three-quarters of the bark comes off as chips and dust, which sell well below quill grade, so the headline figure is not a quill figure.
- Chips and dust need a grinding unit or an oil distillery as a buyer; a pure spice-counter trade will not absorb them.
- Oil, oleoresin and bark-recovery percentages for this selection are not published the way IISR publishes them for Navashree and Nithyashree.
- Recommended for 100 to 500 m — above that band, YCD 1 is the selection TNAU points to.
- Planting material comes from HRS Pechiparai or a TNAU-linked nursery, so plan the order ahead of the June–July planting window.
Suitable regions
TNAU records PPI (Ci) 1 as well adapted to lower elevations of 100 to 500 m with high rainfall and a wide range of soils. It was selected at the Horticultural Research Station, Pechiparai, in the Kanyakumari belt.
- Tamil Nadu
- Kerala
Quills, chips and dust: read the 980 kg figure properly
TNAU's yield figure for PPI (Ci) 1 — about 980 kg of bark per hectare — is the largest number on any Indian cinnamon selection, but it is a total, and the split inside it decides your income: 248.42 kg of quills and 731.58 kg of chips and dust.
Quills are the graded product. Bark that peels clean, rolls into a pipe and is scraped free of its outer skin goes into grades from "00000", the finest and smoothest, down to "0", the coarsest. Commercial bark should be no more than about 0.5 cm thick, and the thinner it is the better it grades. That is where the spice-counter price sits.
Chips, pieces, quillings and featherings are what does not make a pipe — broken quills, the inner bark of twigs and twisted shoots, scraped-off material. They are not waste: they go for grinding and for the distillation of cinnamon oil, and the clips yield 0.5 to 1.0% oil. But they sell to different buyers at a different rate.
So before planting this selection, find out who near you buys chips and dust. If the only buyer in reach is a spice trader who wants quills, three-quarters of what you grow will be sold at a discount — and in that case the quill-weighted selections are the better fit.
Can you save seed from this crop?
PPI (Ci) 1 was itself picked out of an open-pollinated seedling collection, so its own seed will not breed true — seedlings from it scatter back across the variability it was selected from. Keep it true by air layering (the ring method, with indole acetic or indole butyric acid at 50 ppm), ground layering or semi-hardwood cuttings. If you do raise seedlings, collect fruit when the outer pulp turns black, rot and wash the pulp off, dry the seed in shade — never in the sun, which cracks the coat — and sow it at once in July or August.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Cinnamon (Dalchini) variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Starts bearing | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IISR Navashree | A grower who sells quills and wants the most bark out of every shoot cut, anywhere in the Indian cinnamon belt | First harvest about 3 years after planting; flowering from year 4, then a bark cut every 18–24 months | 200 kg dry quills/ha, potential 250 kg/ha; 201.1 g dry bark per plant | Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam |
| IISR Nithyashree | A grower with a distillation unit or an oleoresin buyer within reach, who wants leaf oil and oleoresin income alongside quills | First harvest about 3 years after planting; flowering from year 4, then a bark cut every 18–24 months | 200 kg dry quills/ha, potential 250 kg/ha; 194.6 g dry bark per plant | Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam |
| PPI (Ci) 1this page | A low-elevation, rainfed garden at 100 to 500 m, for a grower who can also sell chips and dust to a grinding or distillation unit | Suitable for coppicing at 18 to 24 month intervals; the tree can be retained for up to 50 years | About 980 kg bark/ha — 248.42 kg quills plus 731.58 kg chips and dust — 25% above the Pechiparai local | Tamil Nadu, Kerala |
| YCD 1 | A Tamil Nadu or Karnataka garden at 500 to 1,000 m that wants the highest bark tonnage plus a big leaf crop for distillation | Harvest from the third year after planting; economic life about 20 years, with a bark cut every 18–24 months | About 359.75 kg quills/ha plus 3,800 kg dried leaves/ha, at 35.3% bark recovery | Tamil Nadu, Karnataka |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Cinnamon (Dalchini) is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Cinnamon (Dalchini) plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Germination CalculatorTest 100 seeds from the bag before sowing and see whether the lot is fit to sow.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Cinnamon (Dalchini) variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Cinnamon (Dalchini) into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop CalendarMonth-by-month sowing, weeding, irrigation and harvest dates for Cinnamon (Dalchini) in your state.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Cinnamon (Dalchini) rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Cinnamon (Dalchini) seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
Is PPI (Ci) 1 really the highest-yielding Indian cinnamon?
On total bark, yes — about 980 kg per hectare against roughly 360 kg for YCD 1 and 200 kg for the two IISR selections. On quills alone it is 248.42 kg, below YCD 1's 359.75 kg. Which number matters depends on whether you have a buyer for the 731.58 kg of chips and dust.
What does "tolerant to drought" mean for a rainfed cinnamon garden?
Cinnamon is normally grown unirrigated after the first two or three years, and TNAU says prolonged dry spells are not conducive to its growth. A drought-tolerant selection holds its flush and shoot growth better through those spells, which is what decides whether the shoots reach cutting size in 18 months or take 24. It does not remove the need for summer watering while the plants are young.
Can one planting really last 50 years?
TNAU says the tree can be retained up to 50 years, against about 20 years of economic life for YCD 1. What keeps it going is the coppicing cycle — you never harvest the stump itself, only the shoots it throws every 18 to 24 months — plus annual manuring that rises with age and mulch around the clump.
Why does TNAU recommend it only for 100 to 500 m?
Because that is the band it was selected and tested in, at HRS Pechiparai in the Kanyakumari foothills — low elevation, high rainfall, and a wide range of soils. Above that, TNAU points to YCD 1, which it recommends for 500 to 1,000 m with 100 to 200 cm of rain. Both selections are for the same crop; what differs is the altitude and rainfall each was proved in.
How often can I cut, and when?
TNAU says this selection is suitable for coppicing at 18 to 24 month intervals. Within that, cut in May and in November, as soon as the rains cease and the bush has stopped flushing — that is when sap flows freely between bark and wood and the bark lifts cleanly. A shoot that fails the oblique test cut is left standing for the next round.
Sourced from: TNAU Agritech Portal — Varieties of spice crops (PPI (Ci) 1, 2003), TNAU Agritech Portal — Cinnamon package of practices, Karnataka State Spices Development Board — Cinnamon package of practices. editorial policy.