As someone a couple posts ago mentioned, use Treepro tree shelters or another brand of tree shelters. Purchase the tallest ones you can and install them around each tree. It's not too much work. Just put in a little time and money and the trees will be fine. I've planted 2600 trees by hand on my property and installed the tree shelters around about 800 of them. If your ground holds water near the surface and you are in a windy area, you should use two or even three wooden stakes to hold the shelters in place so the wind won't blow them over. My place is very windy and when the ground is wet, the wind will pull one stake out of the ground and knock over the shelter and sometimes damage the tree. I've since been installing two and even three wooden stakes to prevent further loss this way. If wind is not a problem, just one stake will be enough. Once the tree grows out the top of a tall shelter, the tree is big enough to protect itself from any deer browse.