What is the most reliable way to get saplings from leaves?

I've started trying my hand at tree farming (I was starting to reach a tipping point where cutting trees was affecting the aesthetic of my base island). After an initial few rounds cutting trees and smashing leaves I felt like my setup was going to work well.

However, of late I've been getting fewer than one sapling per tree. Obviously that isn't sustainable for long and I've had to go back to taller trees (far from my farm) that I had previously chopped and build temporary dirt towers to reach the floating leaves I had left behind.

I've previously assumed (and not read anything to the contrary) that saplings were dropped randomly so perhaps I'm just getting a string of 'tails' and ascribing it non-randomness but it certainly feels like there must be some pattern to getting saplings that I was initially following by accident and am failing to follow now.

So is there any way to increase sapling output, such as by using different tools (sword?), time of day, whether I cross my eyes in or out, etc?

Solution 1:

Like Flint from gravel, the chance for a sapling to drop from destroying a block of leaves is a static percentage whenever you destroy the block.

Most likely, you've just been badly treated by the random number system. Keep planting the saplings you do find, and eventually you'll start coming across the 9-saplings trees again. ;)

Solution 2:

All you need to do is to cut down the trunk of the tree so that there are no wood blocks remaining. After that, the leaves will die and generate saplings over the period of a day and you will be left with all the saplings you can get. This is a very low maintenance technique, all you need is something to do in the meantime while you wait for the leaves to die.