Germinating Problems

Hi everyone, I've just started getting stuff together to grow one or two plants, and got myself 5 Big Bang seeds. I've sat and read hours worth of matieral on her about different ways to do things.
I first tried germinating just one seed, placing it in a wet paper towel. Around 24hrs later the seed had cracked open and the root was showing. I planted it in my soil root down. Two days later, I looked to find the root lying totally above the soil, and the seed shell had fallen off, leaving just the root.

Next, I tried another seed, placing it in warm water for a while (the seed quickly cracked) then in a warm wet paper towel, and when the root started showing planted it. 3 days later there was no progress, and I moved the top layer of soil gently to see the seed, which basically smushed under my finger.
My third seed is currently in a warm paper towel, which cracked open a little at first but now almost appears to have "sealed up".

Can anyone give me a few pointers on where i'm going wrong? I just can't seem to get past this stage at all!

im also growing a couple big bang too,what i do is put a seed in a paper towel, then wet it, then place on top of my set top box or on top of my p.c. were its warm 70/80 for 2/3 days or how ever long it takes, somtimes upto a week,to 11 days when the tap root is a couple of m.m long then i place it into o peat block or soil tap root down the tap root isnt the shhot its the root the shoot will come after you have placed it in the soil, tap root down,then put on a warm windowsill for a few days or under a small flo nothing to warm. then it sould start popping through after a few days. good luck, keep us updated.

Thanks for the reply, I've germinated my last 2 seeds over night (first in a cup of warm water until they sank, then in warm paper towels) and this morning they've cracked open and the root is starting to show on both, however only maybe 1mm. When is the best time to plant, I don't want to wait for the taproot to get longer only for it to retreat back into the shell as it's currently been doing.