Botany - Apple Seedling

[Tiassa]

Botany - Transplant Apple Seedling?

So I was just out having a cigarette and I noticed along one edge of the yard a very strange little "weed" unlike any I had seen in this or any yard. It struck me immediately that it might be an apple seedling. I haven't struck an exact match with Google; the stalk is the same color, but the leaves are different. However, there are some challenges:

• I'm as sure as I can be it's an apple seedling because of its location: after the tragic and accidental death of my neighbor's cat in our shed, I buried the cat along one edge of the yard and marked it with a stone. As the seasons turned and the apples fell from a small, ill-planted, ill-conceived tree in the yard, I collected them and arranged them around the marker stone; it's an old superstition of mine, sort of.

• This means the seedling will eventually tap through a dead cat. I don't know how superstition feels about that, but for some reason I find this disturbing.

• More relevant to the seedling itself, it's located too close to a tall, strong evergreen. In the long run, it will lose the battle, I think.​

Thus I feel the need to attempt to transplant the thing.

• • •​

An early perusal of Google:

If I were to start another orchard, I would plow and cultivate the land for several seasons to prepare it for the trees. The wildness and roughness should be worked out in order to give the little trees a fair chance. Then I should plant apple seed where I wanted the trees to stand, and then bud onto the sprout the variety I wished to raise. In this way the taproot would not be disturbed, as it is by moving the tree, but would run straight down. This makes a longer-lived, stronger tree.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

So goes the assertion, it seems moving the seedling will hurt the tree no matter what. Discouraging in its own right.

However, I'm looking in the wrong place, I think. There must be something simpler than what I'm finding.

Of course, even for having grown up in a state known for its apples, I have no freaking clue. I'd applaud our public schools, but the Catholics didn't correct the situation, and I certainly haven't bothered with it until now, so ....

At any rate, anybody have any ideas? The seedling is very young, only about four inches tall. About the only thing I can tell by looking at it is that it won't fare well where it is, and I have no clue what karma says about tapping through a cat.

In the meantime, I'll keep Googling. Thanks.

 

[spidergoat]

Just dig it up and plant it somewhere else in the spring along with some good soil, water it frequently for a week or two.

 

[0scar]

Trees that young are very versatile, I've transplanted many seedlings and have had very few die. There is a special tool you can use to dig it up with out disturbing the roots, I forget what its called, it's like a trowel only its a full circle, sort of like what you might use to get a core sample. You can get them at any gardening store. But, about the tree going through the cat, I think that when the tree fruits, cat will have never tasted so good!

 

[vslayer]

dig up the whole deal, then move a large clod of soil around the seedling in one piece, put it in the new hole, then you will have successfully transplanted a cat and a tree.

as for karma, i imagine the cat going back to nature would be good karma, and the gross out factor? i eat the fejoas that grow right next to and probably into the area i have buried 3 cats, 11 fish, 15 birds.
mmm, recycled goodness