Hello,
I have one mature Sorbus on my land. Fruits are good to me but not to others in my family. This is because "sorbe" are not very juicy and taste like pears but without all that juice. They ripe in October-November as soon as they become red but, at that time, they are quite sour so to eat them you must pick them from the tree and leave them in a basket for a few days. This will soften and sweeten them as their colour changes to brown.
I have found that Sorbus is quite hard to reproduce from seed because seeds have a low germination rate (In the wild this is increased by the passage through birds stomach). However if you use a lot of seeds (each fruit has at least 4 seeds) and if you have cold winters, you should have good results. Each zone and climate is different, I can't tell with 100% reliability. I have seen your video with Walnut trees... Maybe that's a good place for Sorbus. Mature trees also produce some strong root suckers and can be propagated by transplanting them.
Fig sticks have a high success rate. I would say 80-90%... You can put them in the ground when the tree has completely lost its leaves. Here this occurs in December. An old farmer suggested me to put them in the ground in February. I didn't try this yet... But in December I've always had good results. It's important to know that here, in most cases, fig tree is grafted on "male" form which is stronger and vigorous and I think around 100% success rate but does not produce edible fruits.
With the Carob trees I have no experience in direct sowing. I have been sowing them in pots and the technique, like for other legumes, is to sow them in springtime. You put the seeds in a bowl, boil some water and pour it on the seeds. You leave the seeds in the water until they swell and then sow them. However, since I have seen a lot of small seedlings a few years old under a mature tree in the countryside, I think that with large quantities of seed, even without that technique, you should get good results. This I observed in December and at that time there were also newborn seedlings. Consider that here winter is not cold. We have very rarely snow and minimum temperatures around 6 Celsius normally... So if winter is cold maybe you can put in the ground untreated seeds in Winter and treated seeds in Spring. Untreated seeds may not germinate that year because they have a hard coat that doesn't absorb water. The treatment softens it. I have no experience with cuttings. Carobs ripe in November-December and are a good snack!
I hope that I managed to satisfy your questions.
Goodbye!
Antonio
