Orlah & Neta Revay

I don't live in Israel. I have a papaya tree. These trees apparently give fruit for just a few years and then fade away. So the main fruit is within the first 3 years I’m not sure if this tree will even give fruit past then. I didn’t know how old this tree was I took a picture of it and sent it to ChatGPT and they guessed it was 12 months old. But I know there is a safek regarding brachos whether papaya is a real tree or not. Can I rely on that to say it is not orlah??

I live in Florida. For the tree I recently bought, at one point a graft was performed in the nursery with a branch from a more mature tree of the same species and I don’t know when that happened. Do I have to call the nursery and get to the bottom of these things or can I just rely on the doubts and not even call the nursery? 

I just read your fantastic article on orlah. I just planted some tree trees in my yard in Florida. I didn’t understand something from your article though. It said that there are certain things you have to know 100% from the nursery before you can say that a fruit is not orlah. Such as the pot was perforated 2.5 cm, that it wasn’t grown on a plastic sheet etc. But if you can’t get straight answers from the nursery, wouldn’t it be considered safek orlah and mutar? Secondly why would I have to call the nursery at all just like someone is not obligated to find out where the fruit he buys in the supermarket come from?  Can’t I just say safek orlah mutar?

I've heard that we're not supposed to eat or benefit from orlah fruit. Does that apply to the Chanukah menorah, too? 

Dear Rabbi,

In our garden we planted an avocado tree that we sprouted from a seed. The tree has been growing in our yard for ten years and has not given any fruit. We recently grafted a branch from a different avocado tree onto it and now it does produce fruit. Do we need to restart the orlah count from the time of the graft?

Hi, We bought a limequat tree grafted onto another type of citrus tree. It is in a pot with holes in the bottom, on a brick porch. Do we have to wait 3 years before we use the fruit? Thank you, B’sorot tovot, 

Question: I saw that a green grocer's kashrut certificate in Jerusalem stated that only non-mehadrin stores are allowed to sell raspberries. Why is that?

A mashgiach of a large kashrut organization, who works in China, checked a company growing monk fruit in a greenhouse onsite. He found out that since monk plants produce the most fruit the first years, the company harvests the fruit only from monk plants during their first three years. In light of this, is monk fruit considered orlah? 

I want to grow a blueberry bush at home. You wrote that orlah applies to hydroponically grown trees. What about aeroponics?

 I want to grow a blueberry bush in my house hydroponically, using water and fertilizer. The bush produces fruit by its second year. Does orlah apply to trees grown hydroponically?