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Kilayim 3:4-5

Kilayim 3:4

It is permitted to plant two rows each of cucumbers, gourds and Egyptian beans (with a furrow in between each species) because they are distinct plots. One row of each species is prohibited because they appear like one big plot of several species. When it comes to planting a row of cucumbers, a row of gourds, a row of Egyptian beans, then another row of cucumbers, Rabbi Eliezer permits it (because it is essentially a cucumber field with other species planted in a permissible fashion) but the Sages prohibit it (since the rows of cucumbers are not contiguous, so it’s not a cucumber field, just different species planted together).

Kilayim 3:5

A person may plant a cucumber and a gourd in the same hole so long as they lean in opposite directions, with their leaves pointing in opposite directions. This is permitted because the Sages only prohibited things that look like mixed species planted together, not things that clearly aren’t.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz