I never thought about that. Makes perfect sense,though! I have some fruit trees I haven't planted yet. I'll give it a try!

Gee, Christine, I had to stop and think about how I last staked a tree! It's been a while since we've added a tree that was big enough to need one.

Great tip!

It is also important that if you are tying the tree to the stake that you do so loosely, allowing the tree to move with the wind. This allows the trunk to become stronger and not reliant on the stake. Then at some point you can remove the stake.

We just planted some fruit trees too. The one in the pic was from last spring planting (it was the only thing green when I wrote this tip).

Here's one of the newly planted apple trees with the loose tie, like you stated Paul. It's an apple tree, called "Winesap original."
We have two reasons for staking our trees, the dogs and the wind.

Oh, and meant to say that the pic above shows the result of not staking first... we had to put the stake further away from the tree to avoid the roots.