Seriously!?!? Germinating first makes sense. I guess you could lazily toss your seed in the dirt and then hope to see something. Germinating seperates good seeds from bad in a few days giving you the opportunity to avoid planting a seed that won't grow? All you have to do is stick it in a wet paper towel an put it in a plastic bag...done. If that's too much work then growing in general will be too. Your three that didn't make it wouldn't have made it in the soil either; blame the seed, not the technique. This season I germed 4, all 4 popped the seed case inunder 48 hours...5 days later my seedlings are off and running. If anything, double check your technique because germinating makes sense.