Q&A

Is it permissible to buy before Rosh Hashanah potting/garden soil mix, slow release fertilizer pellets, and containers of dichondra seeds to be ready to plant and work the soil on the 3rd of Tishrei, while avoiding the crush of people going to nurseries and any possible shortages after Yom Tov?

What happens, say, if in another week (bi'ur time for loquats), you have loquat preserves that you cooked together with lemons (whose bi'ur time is in more than a year!)? What about if there are other non-sacred foods cooked with the kedushat shevi'it loquats?

My father is holding onto my little brother's money (he's 14). That is, money he received as a gift: Chanukah gelt, bar mitzvah money, etc. He gave the money to my father so when he asks for money, our father gives him money from this sum and deduct it from the money he gave him. My father is not returning the same bills, but others that amount to the same sum. My father uses my brother's cash for his own purposes.

1. Is it considered that my father is a borrower? My father doesn't really benefit from the fact that he "borrowed" this money, my brother is the one benefiting from the arrangement.
2. If so, is it possible for him to give presents to my bother? I know it's forbidden for borrowers to give lenders presents since it's like interest. Here, though, he's giving my brother presents just because he's his son, not because of the loan, which he doesn't really benefit from anyway.
3. My brother did not write a prozbul. Is the debt canceled and so he won't be able to ask our father for money ("do not press your fellow").
4. If the loan is canceled and my father wants to return the debt as a gift ("one who returns a loan from the shemitah year, the Sages are pleased with him"), is there a way to do so without physically taking the bills and giving them to him (it's a large sum).

Can he perhaps give him a few bills as a present and then my brother will return them as a loan, and then do it again? Or is this considered that he returned the loan?

We have two citrus trees in our yard. Due to the weather, lots of undeveloped fruits are dropping on their own. They are by no means edible.
What are we supposed to do with them? Do they have kedushat shevi'it?

I bought a present together with someone else at the end of the shemitah year, after I wrote up a prozbul. I paid for the gift, and my friend said he'd pay me back for his portion later on. Now that Rosh Hashanah (5783) has passed, does he still owe me the money, or was this debt canceled?

I'm a shomer-shemitah gardener. My client has a partially-covered porch on the seventh floor. In the uncovered portion there are plants that need to be pruned and fertilized. The plants are in perforated planters, but sit on the tiles and then cement of the sixth floor beneath it.

I want to know if it is possible to care for these plants during shemitah: prune, fertilize, and move from place to place in the uncovered area. Would it be possible to move them from the uncovered to the covered area?

I received as a present a flowerpot with mint inside. I don't know if the mint was planted during shemitah or if any shemitah solutions were used. What am I supposed to do with the plant? Am I allowed to smell it or use it for havdalah? May I use it to make mint tea?

I have a loquat tree in my yard, which I generally cover in paper bags regular years to prevent birds from picking at them.

I picked up baby radishes at Super Hatzlacha (in Beit Shemesh) of BeFresh. A Russian-speaking friend told me it says "Product of Israel" on it. Are these baby radishes heter mechirah? There is no hechsher on the package.

I bought Chasalat shredded white cabbage with an orange stripe marked with Rabbi Efrati's Mehadrin kashrut symbol. Yevul Lotan is printed on the side. What does that mean?