Continuing orlah count from nursery years for trees outside Israel
Question
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?
Answer
In principle, you are correct. Outside of Israel, the orlah is only in force as a halachah leMoshe miSinai, not as your standard biblical obligation. For this reason, there is no need to find out definitively if the tree is still in its orlah years. As a rule, outside Israel in any case of doubt, the ruling is safek orlah lehakel, we are lenient when there is a doubt regarding orlah. Most of the articles I wrote relate to the situation in Israel, where it is imperative to ensure that all the halachic criteria you mentioned are met.
For trees that sit on surfaces detached from the ground, in general, there is a major halachic dispute regarding their orlah obligation: whether they are obligated biblically, rabbinically, or not at all. Therefore, when it is known with certainty that the tree grew in the nursery detached from the ground, some opinions allow continuing the orlah count from the nursery years. The accepted ruling is that the orlah obligation of such trees is rabbinic. Here, the safek orlah is a halachic doubt—a doubt regarding the halachic status of the tree—not a doubt regarding the situation, that is, whether or not the tree was connected to the ground.
Here, too, we are lenient regarding a halachic doubt outside of Israel. For this reason, if the tree is definitely on a detached surface, there are opinions that allow continuing the orlah count from the tree's nursery years outside of Israel when transplanting it to the ground.
HOWEVER, if the clod of soil encasing the roots crumbled to the point where the tree would not be able to exist for two weeks, and then it was planted in the ground in your garden (or anywhere else), the orlah count starts again. In this situation, there is no doubt (not regarding its halachic or situational status) and the Shulchan Aruch (YD 294:19-20) rules that you would need to restart the orlah count. This applies both in Israel and outside Israel.
Conclusion
Outside Israel, it is possible to continue the orlah count from the tree's nursery years. Only if the clod of earth encasing the trees' roots crumbled, does the orlah count restart.