YCD 1
The high-tonnage selection: about 360 kg of quills per hectare with 3,800 kg of dried leaves, and 19.2 harvestable shoots per harvest, from the TNAU station at Yercaud.
Quick facts
- Type
- Selection from open-pollinated seedlings (TNAU release)
- Season
- All seasons
- Maturity period
- Harvest from the third year after planting; economic life about 20 years, with a bark cut every 18–24 months
- Seed rate
- Planted as 10 to 12 month old nursery seedlings or rooted cuttings — about 2,500 plants per hectare at TNAU's 2 × 2 m spacing (roughly 1,000 per acre), plus 10% extra for gap-filling.
- Expected yield
- About 359.75 kg quills/ha plus 3,800 kg dried leaves/ha, at 35.3% bark recovery
- Suitable soil
- Sandy or lateritic soils with plenty of humus
- Release
- Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Horticultural Research Station, Yercaud, 1995 (TNAU's spice-crop variety list). The Karnataka State Spices Development Board records the selection as made at AICRPS, Yercaud.
About this variety
YCD 1 is the cinnamon selection released by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University from open-pollinated seedlings at its station in Yercaud, Salem district. TNAU records a dry bark yield of 359.75 kg of quills and 3,800 kg of dried leaves per hectare with a high bark recovery of 35.3%, 2.8% volatile oil in the quills and 3% in the leaves, and a high regeneration capacity of 19.2 harvestable shoots in one harvest. The quills are described as sweet and lightly pungent — the Karnataka State Spices Development Board calls the taste sweetish-bitter. It comes to harvest from the third year and can be kept economically for about 20 years.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose YCD 1 if your land sits between 500 and 1,000 m with 100 to 200 cm of rain and you want tonnage: about 360 kg of quills per hectare against 200 kg from the IISR selections, plus 3,800 kg of dried leaves. Choose PPI (Ci) 1 instead if you are lower down, at 100 to 500 m with high rainfall, or if drought tolerance and a 50-year stand matter more than quill grade. Choose IISR Navashree for the best bark recovery anywhere in India, or IISR Nithyashree if oleoresin and eugenol-rich leaf oil are what your buyer pays for.
Key characteristics
Sowing & cultivation
- Sowing timeTNAU finds June to December the optimum planting season for cinnamon; plant with the monsoon where you can. Nursery sowing of fresh seed is July–August, in rows 12 cm apart.
- Seed ratePlanted as 10 to 12 month old nursery seedlings or rooted cuttings — about 2,500 plants per hectare at TNAU's 2 × 2 m spacing (roughly 1,000 per acre), plus 10% extra for gap-filling.
- SpacingTNAU: pits of 60 cm cube at 2 m × 2 m. 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 transplant one-year-old seedlings or rooted cuttings under partial shade. TNAU says to put up a small pandal for temporary shade straight after transplanting.
- IrrigationTNAU: protective watering during summer is beneficial. The Karnataka package gives twice-weekly summer watering for the first two to three years; after that the crop is rainfed.
- FertilizerTNAU's table: first year 20 g N, 18 g P and 25 g K per plant; the same amount added every year; from the tenth year onward 200 g N, 180 g P and 250 g K with 20 kg of farmyard manure a plant. Apply in two splits, May–June and September–November.
- HarvestingTNAU: harvesting starts in the fourth or fifth year after planting, while TNAU's own variety note and the Karnataka board both say YCD 1 comes to harvest from the third year. Shoots are cut once in May and again in November, as soon as the rains cease; bark is peeled from shoots 18 to 24 months old, usually about one metre long and 1 to 2 cm thick.
Soil & climate
Soil
- Suitable soil
- Sandy or lateritic soils with high humus (TNAU)
- Irrigation
- Free drainage essential; cut a channel from each pit on sloping land
Climate
- Maturity
- Hot and moist, average about 27°C
- Irrigation
- 100–200 cm a year for YCD 1 (TNAU); the crop in general takes 150–250 cm
- Climate
- TNAU recommends YCD 1 at 500 to 1,000 m above mean sea level. The crop as a whole grows up to about 800–1,000 m.
Yield & maturity
Maturity period
Harvest from the third year after planting; economic life about 20 years, with a bark cut every 18–24 months
Expected yield
About 359.75 kg quills/ha plus 3,800 kg dried leaves/ha, at 35.3% bark recovery
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
Pest & disease considerations
Major diseases
Management notes
- Leaf spot: TNAU advises 1% Bordeaux mixture or 0.25% copper oxychloride.
- Shoot borer: smear the stem and branches with carbaryl 50 WP at 2 g per litre once a month (TNAU).
- Coffee red borer: TNAU advises trunk injection, allowing 20 days between treatment and bark harvest.
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- About 359.75 kg of quills per hectare — well above the 200 kg of the two IISR selections.
- A second crop of 3,800 kg of dried leaves per hectare for leaf-oil distillation.
- High regeneration: 19.2 harvestable shoots in one harvest, so the stump refills fast.
- Bark recovery 35.3%, with 2.8% volatile oil in the quills and 3% in the leaves.
- Comes to harvest from the third year and stays economic for about 20 years.
Things to consider
- Recommended for a narrower band than the IISR selections — 500 to 1,000 m with 100 to 200 cm of rainfall.
- Disease and pest resistance for this selection is not documented in available sources; the crop's general plant-protection package applies.
- Economic life is about 20 years, against the up to 50 years TNAU describes for PPI (Ci) 1.
- Oil and oleoresin figures per selection are not published the way IISR publishes them, so compare it with Navashree and Nithyashree on bark tonnage rather than on quality chemistry.
- TNAU's own pages put the first harvest at the third year in the variety note and the fourth or fifth year in the crop guide.
Suitable regions
TNAU recommends YCD 1 for places at 500 to 1,000 m above mean sea level receiving 100 to 200 cm of rainfall; the Karnataka State Spices Development Board records it as released for commercial cultivation in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
- Tamil Nadu
- Karnataka
Coppicing and stooling: how 19.2 shoots a harvest actually happen
TNAU's figure of 19.2 harvestable shoots in one harvest is not something the plant does on its own. It comes from two operations the package calls for by name.
The first is coppicing. Young trees are cut close to the ground — about 15 cm from the stump — once the plant has made a healthy bush roughly 2 m tall, which takes around two years. Cutting the leader off forces the plant to throw side shoots from the base instead of putting everything into one trunk.
The second is stooling: heaping soil around the stump. The Karnataka package says this encourages more side shoots from the base of the tree. Between them, the plant stops being a tree and becomes a low bush that keeps replacing its own crop, since the shoots you cut for bark are back at cutting size within 18 to 24 months.
At TNAU's 2 × 2 m spacing that is a dense stand of stumps, which is why the per-hectare quill figure is high even though each bush gives only about 100 g of dried bark.
Can you save seed from this crop?
YCD 1 is itself a selection out of an open-pollinated seedling population, so seed from your own trees will scatter back into that variability — some seedlings better, most worse. TNAU lists seeds and semi-hardwood cuttings as the propagation routes for cinnamon, and the Karnataka package adds air layering by the ring method, ground layering and division of old rootstocks, with indole acetic or indole butyric acid at 50 ppm to push rooting. Use a vegetative route to keep this selection true, and remember that any seed must be sown fresh, shade-dried, as soon as the pulp is off.
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) 1 | 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 1this page | 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
Why does YCD 1 yield so much more than the IISR selections?
Partly the plant and partly the planting. TNAU gives 359.75 kg of quills per hectare for YCD 1 against 200 kg for IISR Navashree and Nithyashree, and it also recommends a closer 2 × 2 m spacing — about 2,500 stumps a hectare — where the Karnataka package uses 2 × 2 m or 3 × 3 m. More stumps and 19.2 harvestable shoots a harvest add up quickly, even though bark recovery, at 35.3%, is below Navashree's 40.6%.
Can I grow YCD 1 outside Tamil Nadu?
The Karnataka State Spices Development Board records it as released for commercial cultivation in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. What really decides it is the site: TNAU recommends YCD 1 for 500 to 1,000 m above mean sea level with 100 to 200 cm of rainfall. If your land is lower and wetter, PPI (Ci) 1 is the selection built for that; if it is outside the cinnamon belt altogether, no selection will fix it.
What do I do with 3,800 kg of dried leaves?
Steam-distil them for cinnamon leaf oil if a distillation unit is in reach — TNAU puts leaf oil at about 35 kg per hectare a year, and YCD 1 leaves carry 3% volatile oil. If there is no unit nearby, spread them back around the stumps: the Karnataka package calls spent cinnamon leaves one of the best mulches for holding root-zone moisture, which matters on a rainfed crop.
How long will a YCD 1 garden keep paying?
TNAU puts its economic life at about 20 years from planting, with a bark cut every 18 to 24 months once it starts in the third year. That is shorter than PPI (Ci) 1, which TNAU says can be retained for up to 50 years, so factor replanting into a 20-year plan.
Does YCD 1 have any recorded disease resistance?
Not in the available sources. TNAU's variety note describes yield, recovery, oil content, regeneration, taste and adaptation, but says nothing about resistance. Grow it on the crop's normal plant-protection package: 1% Bordeaux mixture or 0.25% copper oxychloride for leaf spot, a monthly carbaryl smear for shoot borer, and trunk injection for coffee red borer with a 20-day gap before bark harvest.
Sourced from: TNAU Agritech Portal — Varieties of spice crops (YCD 1, 1995), TNAU Agritech Portal — Cinnamon package of practices, Karnataka State Spices Development Board — Cinnamon package of practices. editorial policy.