Orlah in a passionfruit vine
Question
Shalom u’vracha. In Tishrei 5786 I bought a fruit-bearing passionfruit vine. It is a plant that climbs very quickly and doesn’t really have a trunk. I asked several workers in the nursery how old the plant is with regard to orlah: one told me at least a year and a half, another said two years. I would like to know:
A. What is the halacha regarding orlah, how long do I have to wait? May I rely on a year and a half or on two years? Or is there some other way to know?
B. May one eat from the fruit only after four years, or beginning from the fourth year?
C. What should be done with the fruits that grow in the meantime? Should they be thrown into the garbage, or do they have the status of shevi’it sanctity? May they be given to a non‑Jew? Thank you for everything! May you merit many mitzvot!
Answer
Shalom u’vracha.
A. You must count three years from the time it was planted in your yard. [You cannot count the orlah years from before it was replanted, because when transferring from one piece of ground to another it is very hard to fulfill the conditions needed so that the previous planting is not nullified].
B. The general rule is three years, but you need to know exactly when it was planted in order to calculate the years correctly.
C. The fruits must be destroyed; it is forbidden to use them for any purpose. They are not “holy” but “prohibited.”
