Buying bulbs, seeds, seedlings, and other plants from nurseries in 5783
Question
Rosh Hashanah is almost here and we gardeners want to know how we can buy plants from nurseries. After the New Year, may we buy bulbs from a bulb nursery, or must we wait a whole another year because they were promulgated during shemitah?
What about roses (bare rooted)? Vegetable seeds? Trees? Bushes? Seedlings?
Answer
Buy such items from shemitah-observant nurseries until:
Annual flowers and seedlings - Middle of Tevet 5783.
Perennial flowers - You can be lenient (roses included) and buy them right after Rosh Hashanah 5783.
Vegetable seeds - Has a long shelf-life and many are imported, so we can be lenient and buy them immediately after RH.
Grass Turf rolls - Buy after Sivan 5783.
Trees
If the trunk diameter is 0–5 cm, the tree is less than 1 year old.
So if you come just after shemitah and the trunk is greater than 5 cm, you may buy it
If the trunk diameter is less than 5 cm, avoid buying it because it was planted during shemitah.
Fruit trees - Buy only from nurseries supervised for kilei Ilan (forbidden tree grafts) and supervised for orlah if you want the nursery years to count for orlah years.