Layered grapevine
Our Garden of Mitzvot is much more than a beautiful botanical garden. Each plot is designed to raise thought-provoking halachic questions. On the technique of layering, havrachah, and its halachic implications vis-a-vis orlah.
Our Garden of Mitzvot is much more than a beautiful botanical garden featuring organically grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs of many types. Each plot is designed to raise thought-provoking halachic questions. At our plot dedicated to special laws of vineyards, our veteran agronomist, Dr. Mordechai Shomron, layered one branch of the grapevine. This agricultural technique (havrachah in Hebrew) involves bending a branch of a plant and burying part of it in the ground so it can take root and potentially grow into an independent plant. Once rooted, the layered branch can be severed from the mother plant.
Layered grapevine branch at the Garden of Mitzvot
In the garden, as you can see above, the layered branch is still attached to the mother vine, which is currently in its second orlah year. The branch was layered one year ago and now both the mother vine and layered branch are heavy with grapes—though they are forbidden to eat due to their orlah status.
This raises several halachic questions:
(1) Is the layered branch also in its second orlah year?
(2) What would happen if we cut off the branch connecting it to the mother vine – would the orlah count continue, would it start at the time of layering, or from the time it was severed from the mother vine?
(3) What would be the status of the fruit if we sever the branch next year, after the mother vine has completed its third year?
Answers:
(1&2) As long as the grapevine branch is still connected to the mother vine, it is exempt from orlah. This is as long as the layered branch is still connected to the mother tree and receives its nourishment from it. However, if the layered branch was disconnected from the mother tree or is completely independent and does not receive nourishment from the mother tree, it is subject to orlah. In this case, the orlah count restarts from the moment the layered vine is disconnected from the mother vine, regardless of the time of layering.
(3) If there are fruits on the layered branch when it was pruned off the mother tree, the fruits are permitted. However, if the fruits continue to grow on the branch after layering is performed, the additional growth of these fruits assume the orlah prohibition. For this reason, if the fruits grow by an additional 1/200 of their original size, the fruits are forbidden. (For more information and footnotes, see Chapter 5 of the Laws of Orlah for the Backyard, §C:2–4).
