posted 4 years ago
In Alabama you may not have enough chill hours to effectively cold stratify things outdoors, but that will vary from one species to another.
Here in Montana, there's a chance the winter can get too cold (-30F and below some years), so I do moist cold stratification in the fridge over the winter and germinate a fair number of fruit tree seeds and move them out into the greenhouse starting in like february through the rest of the spring. Works good with apples, pears, plums, elaeagnus spp., black walnuts, thuja spp, osage orange, aronia,
Apricots I mulch under the tree after the fruit drops and then dig them up the next spring.