seed prep experiment - need advice and help

Hi Everyone, I'm doing some experiments on Red Japanese Maple seed germination (may also do dissectum). I've successfully germinated some of the seeds last year, but I'm looking for ways to improve germination this year, by trying a variety of pretreatments from all the sources I've read up on. These include everything from nicking them in different spots, different kinds of soaks, etc. I would love to hear if any of you have done this before, and what your results were. I've already read most of the old messages on the seeds in this forum, and taken ideas from those. I'm comparing last season's seed germination (kept cool, mostly dry), with this seasons mostly fresh. I want to see if there is a way to improve germination of the older seeds, or it things such as 3 months in fridge, 1 month out, 3 months back in fridge will help break that "maybe it will germinate within 7 years" thing. Again, I need to know what others have tried, so I don't be doing repeat research.

With that in mind, I need some more fresher seeds. My 4 attempts to pick fresh seeds near me have let me find 4 mostly seedless trees. If anyone of you have fairly fresh seeds, I would be happy to pay postage on them. The more seeds, the more different experiments I can run on them. I would need the following data from the seed parent - age/size of tree; variety if known; any previous info on it's habit, stresses, or current condition; whether this years crop amount/size of seeds is normal for that tree; any special treatment that was done to the tree that year. All of these can affect results, so it would be handy to know. If I missed a detail that you think can affect this experiment, please let me know.

I'm a relative newby to Japanese Maples, but have read up a bunch on them, talked to a lot of people, and raised a few myself. I really like to experiment, though (can you say science geek?), and I keep coming up with questions no one knows the answers to. I'm hoping to clear up a few of those with this experiment.

Thanks everyone!