I like the green plastic nursery tie tape, with care taken that the tape isn't folded over or twisted where it rests against the tree bark so it spreads out the load. It is flexible, cheap, and works very well over several years. It won't last as long as the rope though, nor be as strong.

Thanks for the input! Any advice on how far from the trunk to set my permanent stakes? I'm assuming at least 6" or so to allow room for the trunk to grow.

If you use a stake on each side of the tree, it almost doesn't matter. The roots will grow around the stakes (You will be unable to remove them). If you use one stake, 6" is good. You don't want the stake so close that it abrades the bark during the wind but close enough to provide the support needed.

I know that you have T posts already, but maybe you would reconsider. About 15 years ago I set some short T posts in the ground to support some pomegranate trees. The trees grew crazy big and the T posts are dwarfed next to them and serve no useful purpose. I am unable to remove the T posts w/o tearing up roots, so they stay and remind me of the bad decision to use them. I had changed over to metal conduit and am very happy with it. I might start with 1/2" or 3/4" on small trees and can easily upgrade to thicker/taller/stronger when need be by sliding the next bigger size over the small one and drive it into the ground. If there would ever be a need to remove the conduit, it is removable w/o tearing up roots. Having a row of conduit-supported fruit trees can be easily united by driving the biggest/tallest posts to the same height and connecting them with appropriate length sections of 1/2" that has the last 8" or so of each end bent downward 90 degrees and squeezed flat in a vise. The flattened downward-pointing ends can slip downward into the larger upright conduit and thus one connector pipe connects 2 upright pipes. The upright pipes can be large enough to fit 2 downward flat ends: one flat pc. from the connector on the left and the other flat pc. from the connector on the right. I actually use the 3/16" cord tied to the conduit frame to tie some drooping branches higher or crooked branches straighter so they don't cross other branches, or to pull them apart so that they get more Sun light. Not pretty. Functional.

Fireballsocal - I was planning on setting our stakes a distance of 6-8" or so away from the trunk, but one concern I have with a single stake setup that distance away would be if heavy winds were to strike from any direction other than that which the stake provides support from. With 6-8" of play in the tether, it would seem that the roots would be at risk of suffering damage before the stake would limit the further movement of the trunk. Your thoughts?

You are exactly right. You will see professionally installed landscaping trees generally have a 2 stake setup for that reason. Where I live, the heavy santa ana winds only come from one main direction (Except in rare cases) and I have been able to get away with 1 stake. We have also driven 3' steel stakes into the ground 6 foot away or more in cases where unstaked trees showed signs of wind damage. Those were larger trees and we used steel braided cable strung through a short length of garden hose to protect the trunk.