Soak before stratifying outside?

Hey y’all I’m preparing to stratify a few varieties of seeds this weekend (mainly apple, peach, and pistachio rootstocks) and I keep reading about soaking seeds for 24 hours before you stratify in the fridge and I’m wondering if I have to soak them before stratifying them outside. We’re in zone 5a in south central Colorado so they should definitely get cool enough. This is my first year trying to grow rootstock and I want to get it right, hopefully I’m not too late in the season! I’m going to separate each variety and place them in white sand in different buckets to find them easier. Thanks in advance.

If it was me I would soak the seeds. This way I know that the seeds got some water before they were in the cold. I talked to my district forester about stratifying oak seed, he said that the oak seeds can start to grow in the cold and to watch them. Do you know how long each species need in the cold to stratify?

here's a pdf you might find useful
seed stratification
http://www.espsciencetime.org/Downloads/Seed%20Stratification2.pdf

I planted some apple seeds last year in February. I ate the apple and then planted the seeds in the ground right after eating the apple and getting the seeds out. They weren't in a great spot, and I just pushed them into the ground a little bit, but I had really good germination still though surprisingly.

I tried planting them in seed trays, but planting them in the ground ended up being a lot easier to me and a lot less work.

Here's a thread with more details of the apple seeds I recently planted.

Growing Apple Trees from Seeds Naturally

Thanks for the info everybody, I’m going to go ahead and soak them. All the info I have for the peach (nemaguard), apple (antonovka & mandchurian crab) says to stratify for 60-90 days, I got some prunus Vera for the pistachio rootstock and that says 6 weeks while my English walnut says to stratify for 90-120 days. I’m hoping 90 days will cut it for the walnuts! I’ve been watching some Akiva Silver videos and I’m always amazed at how close he grows his seedlings. I had been planning on carefully sectioning off areas for each seedling but after realizing I can separate them for grafting while they’re dormant it helps me put aside square foot gardening rules and helps my ocd chill out.