I was going to try to grow trees/bushes from some mixed nuts I bought at the grocery store. But I'd like advice on any cheap/easy things I can do to increase my probable success rate.

The pots (5-20 gallon or so, I'm not sure, they're about knee high and about as big around as I can circle my arms) are currently sitting outside, half full of a mix of yard dirt and some sphagnum moss. Later, I'm going to add water crystals, and a layer of actual potting soil (potting soil is kinda expensive, and they're big pots...). I was planning to stick the seeds in the potting soil layer (several per pot). Other than filing or cracking a hole in the shells, is there anything I can or should do to increase the chances that my nuts will become seedlings (without requiring any supplies I don't have 't hand)? I have no compost available yet, and I'm not going to buy anything special for this project.

One of the pots is a bit larger than the other, and has soil from the garden instead of the yard (which is, presumably, slightly better soil). So I'd like to give the better pot to the one more likely to survive.

Sun options will range from partial to full sun (I'm not sure how much sun my yard gets in the summer, I've only lived here a few months, the yard is small and on the north side of a house with a vaulted ceiling) to pretty much full shade. Which nut do you think is more likely to survive in our climate? Alternately, if their chance of survival is about the same, is there one that needs richer soil than the other? And, if anyone happens to know, what sun conditions are these plants likely to prefer?