I am trying a new idea this spring … I started some seedlings in Feb or so, I was growing them in the greenhouse but I stupidly spritzed the leaves with some water with fertilizer in it and several of the babies were not happy. One that looked like it was fading still had some good dormant buds at the leaf bases and I budded them on to a mature tree outside:
This was about a week ago, and it is still alive. I am going to try to force this bud in a couple weeks. If this works it will get the seedling on a mature tree one year faster perhaps.