Transplanting Volunteer-Growth Saplings

What to Know About Volunteer Saplings

New Green Growth

In recent weeks, Nashvillians may have seen new tree saplings popping up all over their yards. These are last fall’s seeds sprouting after a patient winter. If you’re noticing tiny maples, elms or oaks in your flower bed or vegetable garden, and you want to move one to another part of the yard to let it grow, it’s easier than you might think to transplant the volunteer sapling. 

Choosing a Sapling

Find a tree sapling that is just a couple of inches tall, and choose a spot to move it. Remember, it will become a large, mature tree, and it needs sunlight to grow and airspace to spread its branches. Choosing an appropriate location is always the first step in planting a tree. You’ll want to move it before the roots start growing too much. If you wait too long, you risk disturbing its roots which can be detrimental to the health of the sapling. 

Moving the Plant

The roots of the sapling shouldn’t be longer than the stem itself, but in any case, you want to dig deeply enough below and widely enough around the stem that you’re taking up a sizeable pocket of soil, with the sapling remaining in-position and intact (a few inches below, a few inches around).

Choose a spot in your yard where there is enough sun, dig a hole that is just a few inches deep. Make sure not to plant the sapling too deep. This is an easy way to suffocate the roots. Don’t pile too much soil on top of it, either. That can also suffocate the roots! A tree’s roots aren’t as deep as most believe them to be, and they need air, water, and bioactive soil to take up nutrients, grow, and spread out, so they can’t be buried too far below the surface. 

Growing a Tree

To help the tree grow from a seedling, to a young sapling, then on to a mature tree, the best thing you can do is make sure the tree isn’t located in too much shade, and that it receives enough water (but isn’t drowned). One way to do this is to use a natural mulch of leaves and/or grass clippings, spreading a thin layer around the sapling to cover the ground and retain moisture. It will keep the area moist and covered, while providing habitat to small insects and fungus, who decompose the organic matter, build the soil, and provide nutrients to the plant as it grows.

A tree will take several years to grow to full maturity, and it will need frequent, but not constant, attention to make sure it grows safely and securely. As it matures, it will require pruning and proper branch trimming, both of which can be provided by certified arborists to be sure the tree is maintained with best practices. 

Transplanting volunteer-growth saplings is a great way to get a couple more trees in your yard. Keeping trees of different ages is important for a neighborhood’s canopy, since mature trees are regularly cut down in developing areas. Making the choice to let a new tree grow in your yard is a real contribution to the local ecosystem!

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