The plant lady has her special way to germinate fruit seeds; she puts them in a wooden box, covers them with damp sand, then covers it all with moss to preserve the wetness. I've seen her germinate 200 plum seeds like this! Also she collects moss for this purpose all the time; we'll be taking a walk and she sees a mossy tree or a rock and it just draws her in, she returns home with her arms filled with green.
The non-tropical fruit seeds like apples, pears, plums, grapes, peaches, cherries and berries, need to be cold-stratified before they will germinate. That means they need to be exposed to a period of cold or freezing weather conditions; they're programmed to wait for winter, then wait for winter to pass, then sprout at first signs of spring. You can leave them outside in the winter, or fool them by keeping them in the fridge for a few months.
I've been collecting fruit seeds for a while now; I'd love to be able to grow at least a few little fruit trees in cups and pots, so by the time I get the land to live on, I can just transplant them out immediately. I'm trying my own experiment in germinating them thru the winter. I got a plastic cup with an airtight lid, and I'll put the seeds in, mixed in a wet forest soil, and then keep it all closed so nothing can dry out.
I'm going to close this and keep it in a dark corner of my balcony, then check for germination as soon as it gets warmer. My only problem is that I absolutely cannot differentiate between apple and a pear seed, and nothing is labeled, but we'll deal with problem that when we get to it. Hopefully this gets me some trees growing!
