I found a pinus pinea pine sapling the other day and dug it out poorly I think. It only has one long root so I just put the root straight into water so that it can grow more roots. Does this work or is there something else I should do?

Digging up young pine saplings is a big risk.

If you are in the northern hemisphere, digging up this time of year is a big risk.

Pines roots do not do very well drowned in water.

So just three wrong out of three possible . Do you intend to keep it indoors or outdoors? If indoors it will be four wrongs .

All you can do now is put it in a pot outdoors and hope.

I intend to keep it outside and I’m in the Southern Hemisphere.

So what must I do? Is there nothing to do?

Ahh, southern hemisphere thats good. Should be around the correct time to collect trees now. The chanse of survival is better then.

The recomendation stays the same. Put it in a pot outdoors. Since you are going into spring and have a sapling with week roots I would suggest a shaded spot.