Minecraft Survival Challenge

Hey everyone! I want to share a story about Minecraft(one of my favorite games) with you guys, here goes.

            So I was reading some Minecraft forums one day, and I see a thread about a survival map, so I downloaded it and I decided to play it. There were a few rules you had to follow but they are only there to make it more fun and challenging. You cannot leave the island. You cannot edit your inventory. You must play on at least the 'Normal' difficulty. Those were the only rules. So, I downloaded the map and I started playing. The first thing I thought was 'uh oh!'. Only ONE tree! ONE! So I go cut it down, make a workbench.. the usual. I knew I would have to be resourceful with the saplings because there were no more natural trees on the island. I had a small shelter; it wasn't much, just an enclosed area about 6x6 blocks. Inside was a littile tunnel which lead to a mine I had been working in. With no torches :P.
Anyway, I planted a tree outside of my shelter, and went mining. I thought it would have been fully grown after about a day; I was wrong. Two days passed. Then three, four, five. I went to the minecraft wiki and saw that the trees need a certain amount of room to grow. I went to check if they had enough room; and they did. I was confused. The wiki also said that you can grow them with the light from a torch, so instead of growing them outside, I went down in to my mine and built a large room to grow the tree. I put plenty of torches around, and waited. Nothing. Eventually I just killed some skeletons with an iron sword that I crafted and used bonemeal to grow the trees. I'm still confused as to why they wouldn't grow.

              I really recommend that those of you who own minecraft search for "minecraft survival island" on google, and download the map. Here is a screenshot I took of my island if you want to try to find the same one I have(beware! It's full of dungeons!). To get the screenshot, I went out in to the water and built my way up on cobblestone. So yes, I left the island; sorry! :P

Until next time guys, peace!