Its taken me 10 years to finally find the right materials to plant seedling trees out in the wild and get 100% survival rate.
The grow tube and water rounds. They both have helped my success in getting past the first couple of years. The grow tubes I buy from native nursery and the water rounds I get from home depot but they have a different name now. They are harder to get than the tubes because they are new. Make sure you get the grow tubes that come with circulation holes in the upper half. Makes it a lot easier to apply weed killer.

plant tree.
put tube around tree. Keeps wildlife from eating and or destroying with antlers.
place largest water round around tree.
mulch with hardwood mulch.
keep weeds away with weed killer through out spring and summer.
Fill water rounds up with water IMO bi-monthly.
1 5 gallon bucket of water will fill one water round.
These are the exact steps I take.




Cons with the grow tube. 1 of my tubes was 1/2 filled with a fire ant nest and wasps sometimes build their nest in them.
I hope this helps some of ya'll. Good luck. Will try to get pics of mine this weekend.