Conduit stakes - any tips or tricks?

A couple more I now need to stake for a while. Grafted trees from Cummins that I planted in 2015. Blew over earlier this week in a storm. The closer tree on right is Nova Spy on Polish 18. Tree on the left is Wolf River on Bud 118.View attachment 35848

I’ve got several trees on B118 doing the same thing. B118 roots were a big mistake for me on my heavier soils. I’m going to have replace several trees.


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I've planted almost entirely on B118 and M111 without issue as of yet, but now you've got me nervous.

I do have two chokecherry that got out of the tube and skyrocketed - my wife removed the tube - and the the tops bent over from the foliage. They're both about ten feet tall, so I think I'm going to try WTNUT's suggestion of telescoping conduit.

One point I haven't seen mentioned yet, and I know this from personal experience: don't bevel the end of your conduit, thinking that it will go in easier if it's sharp. It just planes, and is impossible to pound in straight. Over a hundred 5' lengths...total CF.
 
Like many of you, I am a bit concerned about b.118 trees tipping over. I liked the B.118 because of its size. But now, of the 7 trees on B.118, one has tipped over for no apparent reason. In fairness, it has always been a bit “leggy”, tall without a stout trunk. I pulled it back straight, staked it, and in the spring, I am going to prune the top growth back to force a shorter tree that is not so top-heavy. Going forward I am going to avoid the b.118 and stick with the M.111, P.18, Ant.313. At some point I may try a few G.890 rootstocks which are smaller (60%), but if well anchored, might be a better choice than the b.118.
 
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This is an east texas engineered variation on a theme i got from a post by native hunter

bill
 
I’m buried the graft on all my apple tree selections that I planted last spring to self root them giving me full size trees with superior anchorage. I’ll let you know how it turns out in about 10 years
 
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