The procedure is simple. First, get your planting medium together. Second, make a little hole in the medium, about half an inch deep. Then, stick a seed in there, cover it up and add water to help the seed settle down. Once the water seeps through the seed coat, the seed will start to germinate. In bianca's experience, you should be seeing happy little sprouts within two weeks.
bianca does not suggest germinating the seeds between paper towels before planting them. First, paper towels are bad for the environment! Shame on the garden grower who disrespects Mother Nature. Second, it's just a big pain in the butt to keep those damn towels wet. Babies can be transplanted easily after they've reached a certain size, so you might as well start out with the seed in some kind of soil.
During the two or so weeks it takes to germinate, the planting medium should be kept moist, and the room should be around 70 degrees. If the room is too warm, the sprout will get too excited, and grow too thin. This will also happen if there isn't enough light.
Here are a few more seed tips. First, seeds last a long time - years. If you keep them in the refrigerator, they may last even longer - centuries. bianca knows. She is ageless.
Another thing to point out is, there doesn't seem to be a relationship between seed size and plant size. And, as far as bianca knows, there is no way to determine the sex of a plant from its seed. Not even ultra-sound works!
Finally, don't stress about what direction the seed is facing when you first plant it. Babies are smarter than you think. They're inversly-gravito-tropic!
After germinating, the babies enter a new stage: the growth stage. Now the true fun begins!