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Sorbus species (Mountain Ash) are very easy to propagate from seed. What's hard is the patience, it takes two years for the seed to germinate.
Collect the berries in autumn after they have ripened (they will be very plump). Extract the seed from the pulp by squashing them with a piece of 2 x 4 lumber or by any other means. The seed can be washed, but this is not really necessary, just as long as it is free from the pulp.
Prepare a 2 or 3 foot wide bed of soil at the edge of the garden or where it can remain undisturbed for 2 summers. The seed can be sown immediately after it is collected. Scatter the seed rather thinly over the prepared bed of soil. Cover the seeds with about 1/4 inch of black peat. Put a fence or any type of border around the bed so no one runs over it with the garden tiller or one does not forget where it is. Label it using a water proof marking pen and a garden stake. Pull out any weeds carefully by hand as soon as they appear. The smaller the weed plant, the less soil disturbance. Winter will go by.
In spring, summer and autumn, keep the weeds pulled and keep the bed moist if there is no rain. Winter will go by. Then, once spring arrives, the seedlings will start emerging by the hundreds (depending on how many seeds were sown). Keep the bed watered and free of weeds. In the fall when the small trees drop their leaves and are doromant, they can be transplanted into rows in the garden, spaced about 2 feet apart, or they can be transplanted in the spring.
The secret here is giving the seeds two periods of cooling. They can also be fooled by placing them in a refrigerator a couple of times, with a warm period in between, but it is so much easier the way Mother Nature handles it. Occasionally, a few seeds will germinate after the first winter. Good luck this time.
