I and my father (gentleman tree farmer Breese,IL 62230) noticed that pine trees in both of our areas produced seedlings in 2009. I easily counted 70 last fall under a group of about 5 mature "pines". What was special about 09'or 08'. How would you recommend transplanting some of these seedlings. They will get mulched over or shaded out where they are. They are about 4 inches tall as of April 1, 2010.

Greetings Robert:

Transplanting should be fairly simple seeing as conifer seedlings usually do not have as robust or contorted root systems compared to young hardwood seedlings. I would simply take a shovel, spade, or sharpshooter to dig up as much of the root system as possible and transplant the pine seedlings to a suitable location. Plant the trees at the same soil depth and try not to "j-root" the root system in the new planting hole.

I would suggest transplanting as many seedlings as possible prior to May 1 when temperatures begin to increase, along with evapo-transpiration.

I'm not aware of anything special with regard to the 2008-2009 conifer seed crop...

Best of luck!