I mentioned the huge maple tree in the front yard. It just covered the yard with seeds, and it looks like a pretty obvious thing to do to see if some of them will grow.

All the online sites I looked at for growing from seeds says to put them in the refrigerator for two months. That just doesn't make sense to me, but I am not a maple tree so maybe I just don't understand.

Seeds falling from a plant in the fall should expect to wait until spring to sprout, and they should be stratified. Seeds falling in early spring should expect to sprout in a short time, giving them an extra year to grow, and robbing birds, squirrels, and other seed eaters of months to eat the seeds. That is what my sense tells me, but then, as I said, I am not a maple tree.

Opinions? I am planning on planting a dozen or so in a couple of inches of peat moss and perlite, or maybe peat moss and sand, or maybe something else.

And, this is a North American maple, probably not red maple and definitely not silver maple. Definitely not Japanese in any form.

I plant seeds put the tray outside and wait for spring. That is how nature does it.
Fridage is a more controlled environment, and losses might be higher outside. I do not like fridges.

It works for me:

Spring was several weeks ago, so I don't need to wait.

Maybe the smart thing wou6be to pick up a dozen more, put one dozen in the fridge and one outside in a planter and see what works. I am betting on not fridge. We'll see.