I’m with you on this. I tried paper towel but just doesn’t make sense to me. I start mine in rapid rooters. I just stuck 18 old seeds in and about 6 popped. The others didn’t. I tore open the rooters and gently popped them with my fingernail on a table and stuck them back in. Can you believe I got 6 more to pop. These seeds were from 8 years ago and have setting in shop where it’s gets over a 100 all the time.