Sapling



Saplings are an important resource that allows trees to be grown to replace those cut down by miners in search of wood, wooden planks or sticks.

In Survival mode, saplings are dropped with a random chance when leaves wither or are destroyed by the player. The withering behaviour of leaves is explained in detail in the leaves article. There are various saplings for each tree type as of Beta 1.5. Most tree canopies will drop at least one sapling block, though they may drop more, and large tree canopies should drop several if completely denuded. When trees grow, it's possible for some leaves to be generated in an unsupported position, and as they wither they may drop saplings, allowing saplings to be found quite often below newly grown trees. It should be noted that saplings will generally not drop from a tree canopy that is consumed by fire, as the saplings are prone to landing on flaming blocks unless the canopy is lit from above.

In Creative mode, saplings function as a decoration block, and can be placed freely. Saplings will grow into a full tree after a few seconds if the server has "grow-trees" set to "true" in the "server.properties" file and if they are on a grass block. They will not grow on a dirt block.

Saplings can be planted on any dirt or grass block, and will grow into a new tree if they are exposed to a light level of at least 9 in the block above the sapling, and have at least five empty blocks above the sapling "block" itself. They will pop out of the ground if they are not exposed to a light level of at least 8, but will not pop out of the ground if they do not have enough headroom, provided they still have sufficient light. In this way they can be used as decoration in structures provided they don't have room to grow into full trees, or the block above is never exposed to a light level of 9 or more. This also applies to saplings in The Nether.

A light level of 9 (above sapling) may be provided by a nearby torch, so saplings can grow into trees underground with just one nearby torch. It should be noted that while moonlight has a brightness of 4, saplings will not pop out of the ground when exposed to moonlight - they will survive low light provided they have a "clear view" of the sky.

If they are right clicked on with Bone Meal, they will grow into a full tree almost instantly, allowing rapid collection of wood. This instant growth may fail, especially when space is restricted, and the Bone Meal is consumed. It is possible the sapling attempts a random tree form (big and branching, for example) and if that does not work, the growth aborts. Repeated application of Bone Meal may result in a successful tree.

As of Beta 1.5, all Saplings can be used in furnaces, having the same effect has sticks.

Space needed to grow
The different varieties of saplings need different amount of space to grow into a tree:


 * Normal: 1x1x6
 * Birch: 5x5x7
 * Pine: 7x7x10

Trivia

 * The image of a Sapling when placed has eight branches in total.
 * Flowing water destroys saplings entirely; the item won't be dropped.
 * If the player stands on the same block as a placed Sapling as it grows into a tree, wood blocks will grow on top of them, causing suffocation.
 * It is possible to plant a sapling anywhere, provided dirt or grass is available.
 * The sapling requires 6 blocks high free in order to grow (either by Bone Meal or time)
 * There are some bugs in which using Bone Meal on a sapling in a confined space will only produce leaves.
 * Saplings can grow without light if bone meal is used, provided that there is enough space above the sapling.
 * Since Beta 1.3_01, saplings drop faster from leaves.
 * Since Beta 1.5, birch, spruce/pine, and oak trees drop birch, spruce/pine, and oak saplings, respectively.
 * Since Beta 1.5, it seems that birch saplings grow faster than normal trees. A birch tree has been seen to grow from planted sapling to a fully grown tree in under 1 day.
 * When the Beta 1.5 update occurred, all planted saplings were randomly turned into a birch or spruce/pine sapling
 * The pixel layout of a birch sapling icon is a flipped version of an oak sapling.
 * When a sapling is placed one block below the sky void, but with the conditions to grow present, it will simply turn into one wood block and will also grow trees with flat leaf surfaces when placed slightly below the sky void.