I always plant auto seeds directly in their final medium, and seldom have any seeds not germ. Just use light mix soil, plant an inch below ground and water and keep moist the soil where it was planted. I leave them in a sunny location, and the sun warms the soil and the seeds sprout the most natural way. Putting them in water and so on, didn’t work as well for me. As far as Fastbuds seeds, this year got 11 seeds from Fastbuds, and all germed very quickly (2 and a half days) except Mexican Airlines. One MA seed did not germ at all and the other took like five or six days. An advantage of buying from Fastbuds is their top notch customer service. Talk with sister Heather and she will help you out.