I've been using a 10.5' long, 1.375" thick top-rail (intended for chain link fencing) from Home Depot(~$11). It seems quite sturdy. I've been using a digging bar to go down 2-3' (depending on the hole I usually hit a very large rock by then). I've been holding it in place by packing smaller rocks around it and driving them into the gap between the pole and the surrounding soil. I'm not sure if it will eventually have issues with frost heave. The ones I did last spring still seem fine, but it was a pretty mild winter. If you have a lot of trees, you may want to setup a trellis system where there are large end posts and a thin/lightweight post for each tree. Here is a link that might be useful: 10.5' chain link top rail from HD

Fruitnut, I have 2 methods and I'm sharing my trade secrets here (what the hell- I'm 6 months from 60 and hope to retire in 25 years anyway). I start some plants straight in the ground, planting them way too close in a fenced off area. Planting them close makes maintenance per plant much less expensive given that it's all done by hand (don't ask). For apples in my climate it takes about 3 years to size them up to about 1.5" diameter- at least when planted this close. I carefully dig up these BR and put them in short 20 gallon pots (wide and shallow) in a mix of 1 part peat, 1 composted wood chips or stable waste ( almost pure humus with some carbo lumps) and 1 sand, plus a little wood ash. They limp the first season but I sell them the next for around $180 per. At this point they are bearing, 12' tall and well branched and the foliage is back to mormal. Other trees I transfer to Carl Whitcomb grow bags in real soil and let them grow about another 3 years and sell them for $250 per, or less to contractors. The grow bags I use are his last edition because they allow more root out of the bag and I can grow them without any irrigation at all- even through drought. Irrigation would reduce production by about a year, I'm sure, but in my operation only my potted plants get any and they are set in the soil as well. I always take some trees in the grow bags, remove the bags and put them into 25 Gallon pots with the soil intact but surrounded by my potting mix which allows me to sell some larger trees during the growing season. Surprisingly the soil surrounded by potting mix works very well and you might want to try that method for your trees as the soil gives you much more bang per square inch and costs less. Repotting would require only replacing the artificial soil on the edge of the soil ball. It makes things real heavy though, and my soil is not too fine so I don't know how it would work with a more clay soil but I bet it would work just fine. I'm sure my prices seem outrageous by your regional standards but I'm less than an hour from NYC and here it's more than competitive- it's the best deal around- because I have scores of varieties and they're actually properly shaped for fruit production. They also plug in better than the competitions BB'd trees, especially the ones I have in pots.

I can tell you how not to do it; don't use wooden posts that rot out right when your trees are maturing and have a full load of fruit and fail during a wet, sticky snow, snapping your trees off at the graft union. I use a 10' long 3/4" hard copper water pipe, but it's a bit pricy. Galvanized conduit will rust out underground, you could use a galvanized 3/4" water pipe. Regular treated tree stakes like landscapers use will rot and snap. Treated peeler cores are more durable, but a bit big for individual trees. T-posts like in barbed wire fencing are also a popular option.

I tried pulling it out, that's when it broke off. I wasn't referring to Ken in that comment, I was referring to poaky1, who it seems came back and deleted the 5 or so separate comments that they posted in a row that consisted of gibberish and very weird things. I've read that after these bloom, you should shear them back a bit prior to new season growth. That's what I meant. And from some of the comments here and googling, I'm to understand that I should have a stake for at least the first growing season to support the crown as it's a grafted tree.