I've never had a problem getting seeds to germinate. Never sanded any, never used seeds in poop. Just seeds I spit out.Ours are done here in the Ponca Area. We have a small grove of 27 trees with more young ones coming on in our yard. The deer, coyotes, raccoons and possums swarm that area in October when they fall traditionally cleaning up the dropped fruit when they hit the ground.
I won't eat one hanging in the tree even though it's soft. It isn't ripe until it drops is my mantra.
In years past, I've tried to germinate seeds to start a grove at the farm but cannot get the seeds to start a sprout.
I read online that you had to use sandpaper to scuff up the exterior of the seed before they would germinate and another that said you had to use the seeds that had gone through the digestive system of an animal, so I've gathered deer and coyote poop trying to get those seeds to sprout. Nothing works.
They drop so many seeds one would think the groves would look like aspen forests in Colorado, but there must be something about them that prevents that.
I don't even remember ever putting them through stratification. Maybe I did and don't remember.
I know pecans need stratification. Put them in potting soil and just set them somewhere outside to go through winter. Never did anything with them, was going to use as root stock and graft to them. Takes to long. .