All seeds germinate. It means to sprout. As to the best way to germinate seeds, it depends on the seeds. Some need stratification (chilling) and others need scarification (scratching the seed coat to break dormancy). Still others just need moisture and warmth to sprout.

In order to answer your questions, we need more information.

I have seeds that I ordered from Miracle Fruits Exchange Inc. This is the small cheery sized fruit that fools your taste buds into thing sour is sweet. I have already planted them (10) in small peat pots. Before I planted them I removed the hard plastic like coating from them. I did not chill them before hand because they come from the tropics. I have them setting on the mantle over the fireplace since the rest of the house is pretty chilly. My problem is that I am now starting to wonder if I could have tried a different or better method. I keep the peatpots damp with bottled drinking water. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I might do to help these little babies sprout?

I don't believe that you'll receive much information related to your seed problem unless you offer the botanical name of the plant in question. And as to the use of bottled water...why in heavens name do you use it instead of ordinary water? The only difference is that water is free and bottled water is ridiculously expensive

chemical,

I use tap water but I let it sit for a day or two so the chlorine (chloride) dissipates. Last year, I switched from tap water to rain water (bringing in nearly freezing water and letting it warm up to room temps) and the plants did much better. So far this year, I'm using tap water that sits and don't see any difference from the rain water.

Like you, though, I certainly would not use bottled water! What a waste of money.

Mike

The fruit that dubayew is speaking of is Synsepalum dulcificum, AKA Miracle Fruit or Miracle Plant.
I actually grew two of these a few years ago, but they unfortunately died off before they could bear fruit (at about 2-3 years). They are very, very challenging to grow from seed. They do germinate quite nicely if you treat them with some sort of hormone, I hear, but otherwise my germ. rate was about 15%.
The ones that did sprout were grown using a somewhat unorthodox method, and here it is:

I have a fish tank, with tropical fish, that stays consistently at around 80-82 degrees. Simply put, it was the baggie method, in a fry net, submersed in water.

They germinated in about a week and a half. The other plants I tried with this method, should you be interested, sprouted in a day. One. Day. It knocked my socks off. (the 'other' plants were Datura, Borage, and Basil).

If anyone has a fish tank I highly recommend trying this!

Cheers!

:)