Tree seedlings or transplants - what's the difference?

[CarolineW]

I've decided to plant an edible hedge in our garden, and am currently choosing between 2 suppliers. There is one thing which I'm completely confused about, though. What is the difference between a tree seedling, and a tree transplant? Both are about 90cm tall.

I tried to Google it, and I even found a table somewhere, but I was as confused by the technical jargon at the end of it as I was when I began it Oh dear. One day I'll get the hang of this gardening lark. At least I'm having fun learning along the way

I think my real question is, which will give me the fastest return? I'd like them to start fruiting sooner rather than later, and a few extra £'s at this end would be worth it for that.

Thanks

[Peter]

Not 100% on this, but.

A seedling will be what is also called a "whip", a plant that looks like a single stick with roots at one end, it will have been sown, or the cutting inserted, in a close spaced row and grown to the point at which it was dug up and sent to you.

A tree transplant will be a whip that after being dug up was replanted at the nursery with a bit more space and grown on a bit to look more like a tree. i.e. It will have side branches.

Whips will get moving quicker as there is less of a setback to them from being dug up and moved. Less plant for the damaged roots to support.

[snohare]

Some tree nurseries will lift small seedlings as part of a large order, and put the surplus back in the soil somewhere else, perhaps with the roots cut short to help them grow faster. This would count as a transplant I think, but to be honest in the nursery where I worked they were all called seedling because they all grew from seeds !
Could it be that the transplants the suppliers are talking of have been "layered" - taken from bushes which have had branches bent down and fastened to the soil until they develop roots and a secondary leader (upright stem) ?
If both seedlings and transplants are 90cm, I cannot see what other difference there can be really. At that stage they are hardly going to bush out that much I would have thought, although it depends on the species...

[CarolineW]

Thanks, guys. Sounds like it won't really make any difference, then, and I'll go with the cheapest (who is the seedlings).