Q&A

Is it permissible to throw vegetable scraps and seeds near a vegetable garden for the purpose of fertilizing the soil?

Is it permissible to place terumah produce in a compost bin for the purpose of making compost, and once it has decomposed, may it be used to fertilize the soil?

I didn’t quite understand the issue of the coin used for terumot and ma‘aserot. What exactly is this coin? Is it just regular money? Also, does this mean I can’t eat fruit from a garden if I don’t have the coin with me at that moment—for example, if I’m at the school where I work and there are fruit trees there?

Is there a special blessing we're supposed to say for the first rainfall?

My friend asked me about the obligation to separate terumot and ma'aserot from herbs growing on bushes in towns. I thought that herbs growing in public areas are exempt, but someone else said they weren't.

I was also wondering about those growing in pots in home gardens.

Could you tell me the guiding rules that determine when terumot and ma'aserot are obligated??

Hello, I am looking for information on the permissibility of the below scion/rootstock combinations for planting/maintaining outside of Israel:

1. Southern King Pear (scion) / Callery Pear (rootstock)
2. Sharanui Mandarin (scion) / Trifoliate Orange (roostock)
3. Owari Satsuma (scion) / Trifoliate Orange (roostock)
4. Miho Satsuma (scion) / Trifoliate Orange (rootstock)
   
   If any of these are an issue, I would like also a directive on how to treat them. I am a home gardener and planted all of these myself from 3-gallon nursery pots. I did not do the grafting. This is when I mistakenly thought that the only issue on plants that are safek mino (which I assume at least the citrus are) is the grafting, not the transferring from the nursery pot to the ground itself. Do any of these need to be uprooted or can they be maintained? Again, they were all grafted by a non-Jew but planted and are maintained by a Jew outside of Israel.

Is it permissible to weave a mat from the lulav leaflets or, alternatively, to throw the lulav away in the garbage? Similarly, would it be permissible to build furniture from planks used to place sechach on?

I see that it says on all the etrog boxes “not grafted.” What exactly does that mean?

Can turmeric and ginger be planted in the same planter together? Or do I need to create a physical barrier?