Tree Stakes?

[MNBobcat]

We planted a bunch of dwarf apple trees. My understanding is that they need posts about 5 or 6 feet long on each side of them to support the trees. What material do you find works the best? The green T posts are pricey when doing a lot of trees. I'm looking for something that will work very well without costing an arm and a leg. We have about 30 trees.

 

[docone]

Rebar is what I use

 

[dakotagun]

we planted about 20 trees last summer, I went online and found a farmer with a boatload of the t-poles for sale (5-6.5'), think I paid about $2.50 each for 60. I understand they should only be used for one year, so i'll pull them up this fall and attempt to resell them for the same price. for the attachment, we found some tree straps online at A.M.Leonard A.M. Leonard Tools for the Horticultural Industry since 1885. and a small roll of wire...
fyi - we'd tried other 'stakes', plastic with metal rod inside, wooden, etc... they never seemed to work adequately. even after having to buy a post-hammer, it was all worth it.

 

[pohorsky]

We have always used 2" wood stakes. We do however, use 5/8" rebar as field markers.

 

[MNBobcat]

I thought about using 1/2" rebar since I have some on hand. Rebar isn't very rigid though and I didn't know how important that was. I had googled and searched before posting here but didn't really find much for suggestions.