Q&A

What is the status of mushrooms vis-vis shemitah? It wasn't clear to me from the wrapper.

I have a compost pile on the ground in my yard. Am I allowed to mix it during the shemitah year? If I mix it, I will be mixing soil.

Is it permissible to train climbing plants onto a trellis during the shemitah year?

What about adding supports to trees that have begun to grow crooked? If so, under which conditions?

I have herbs growing in my covered balcony. Do they have kedushat shevi'it? What about terumot and ma'aserot?

Hi! Are all these rules exactly the same for a mirpeset open to the sky? How do I make plants on my mirpeset hefker?

I forgot to ask about pruning the bushes for aesthetics. Is that allowed? There are a couple of fruit trees too, I assume we should leave those alone altogether? Also, not to eat the fruit?

Hello, my daughter has a lemon tree that she just picked 3 lemons. 1. I believe that the lemons fall under the category of yivul shishit. 2. If so, does she still have to make them hefker before she brings them into her home? 3. Does she have to take terumah and ma'aser since they were picked during the shemitah year?

If most of the leaves have died in a potted plant (perforated planter, outside), may I remove the dead leaves and/or throw out the entire contents of the pot?

Can I bake banana bread with kedushat shivi'it bananas? Since we are not supposed to use the fruit in an “unusual” way, I wasn’t sure if baking is considered “unusual “? 

Hello. Thank you so much for this information! We made Aliyah 3 months ago are very confused with how to properly keep the laws of shemitah here in the holy land.

Question(s): (1) Can we mow the lawn (or have someone do it)? The seed grass grows too high for my little dog to comfortably do her business on the lawn. We recently mowed it, before I realized that this might be a problem for shemitah.

(2)  Can we remove dead leaves from the ground in the garden? Thank you again.