Gardening and Horticulture - When do I remove the stays on my new trees

I moved into a new house 18 months ago. There were two trees planted (one deciduous some kind of Ash and the other a conifer (bald spruce)). The trees were stayed and tied off. I need to know when the stays and stakes (posts) can be removed safely.

It is sort of tricky, and depends largely on the wind factor you have where you live. If you are subject to alot of wind (we get alot in our valley) keeping them tethered until they are a couple of years old isn't odd. If the trees are of substantial size and your constant wind isn't that bad, you can remove them. Keeping them tethered and not loosening them over time will break the limbs to which they are tethered, so you are at Catch-22 by 18 months.

Once they have had two good growing seasons (spring through early fall) it is safe to remove them, unless we get a hurricane! If you want to leave them longer you should loosen the area where the wire goes around the tree (usually through a piece of hose or plastic tubing) so it doesn't girdle the limb or trunk it is attached to.

Generally stakes should be removed after a year.
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/stakemanagement.shtml

Newt