1. A one-sentence summary of bug: 

My tree spore has counted 2 saplings grown; I have grown many of several types, both naturally and with bonemeal. I have tried experimenting with proximity and checking for rate-limiting, but it seems mysterious why some were counted. None seem to be counted now.

2. Priority to fix? {High, Medium, Low}

Medium.

3. Which server? {Spawn, Redwood, Cypress, Maple, Willow, Expanse, DungeonRun, Rush, Creative}

Cypress

4. Steps to Reproduce: Please list the step-by-step methods to reproduce the issue

a. Be me. (Others are reporting that it works fine.)

b. Have the tree spore in inventory. (Doesn't matter whether it is on the bottom row of inventory or not.)

c. Plant a sapling.

d. Toss bone meal on the sapling and watch it grow.

e. Check the tree spore: no change!

5. Expected Outcome: What did you expect to happen?

Count of saplings grown would increase.

6. Actual Outcome: What happened instead?

Nothing.

7. Proposed Fix (Optional): Do you have a suggestion?

Ideally, both natural-grown and bone-meal grown would be counted.

8. Notes (Optional): Anything else we should keep in mind in relation to this issue?

9. Screenshots (Preferred): Do you have screenshots of the problem, proof or reference?

Not sure if they would help here, but I guess I could record a full cycle to demonstrate as video, if it were needed.

Update, it has gotten worse.

1. I plant a sapling.
2. I grow it.
3. I may or may not get counted for growing it.
4. I harvest the tree.
5. I can no longer plant a sapling in the same spot... it says "Another player (Harmoneq) already placed a sapling there." But there is no sapling there anymore.

Update:

I think I *might* understand the root cause.

I think if I take the tree spore to spawn in inventory, it horks any saplings I have planted, leaving them uncountable, and leaving "ghost" saplings where I grew a tree, making the block impossible to replant.

So: workaround -- *try* to remember to store the spore if I go to spawn.

It might also happen with the nether, but I am not sure, so in an abundance of caution I will be very careful with tree spore location.

Update, actually, it looks like *any* teleport, even to another location in the overworld, horks the tree spore's saplings and state.

Update: These all may be true, it also happens if the tree grow organically while I am not in the chunk. So there are many scenarios where I can end up with ghost saplings and uncounted trees.

Ok... I think this is the conclusion of my investigation:

1. There is a condition in which a sapling planted in the presence of the tree spore becomes "ghosted" -- the grown tree is not counted, and once harvested, no more saplings can be planted in the location. Destroying the block beneath it does not fix the matter, but you can raise the level of the terrain to fill the afflicted location.
2. This condition happens when the tree spore is removed from the sapling's presence by:
   • Going to spawn
   • Going to the nether
3. This condition also happens if the sapling matures into a tree organically without the tree spore present (if you leave the chunk?)

There are workarounds for all of this, but in particular, the ghosted sapling situation definitely seems like a bug, not intended behavior.

Since there's no response on this, I am going to assume this is not a priority.

I discovered one other way to "ghost" a sapling, and that's if I accidentally uproot it while trying to feed it bonemeal.

I assume the tree spore object is listening for a "grow event" and until it receives that grow event, it considers the sapling to be present at the specified location. It fails to take into consideration other events, like being mined, or like what happens if the grow event happens off-screen and the message is never broadcast.

I would call that a fairly flawed tree spore design, personally, but it is still kind of workable, once you know what to be very very careful about.