Seeds won't germinate

So.. I think this is a pretty common problem lol but please help me out. I'm a first time grower and started germinating about 3 days ago. It's supposedly chronic but the guy I got it from is questionable.. He gave me about 30 seeds for 5 bucks. I think he was expecting some free bud that's why he did it so cheap cuz we told him we would. So pretty much the seeds have done nothing. I have around 15 in a wet paper towel (really wet, and it's layered), and then just plopped the rest in some soil lol. I used Miracle Grow soil (it's all they had besides some ghetto target brand stuff) and some tap water as well as that mount olymous water. The water was about room temp. The first two days i had the ones in the wet paper towel just sitting there in the sun behind a window to raise temp. I figured out that was bad and wrapped a black t-shirt around it. They're all currently in my window. Is there any reason they shouldn't have germinated yet? Maybe chronic takes a bit longer to germinate? O yer, I forgot to mention the seeds where somewhat brownish. I think they where just dirty though because no they're nearly black; a really dark brown. Is it the seeds maybe? Or am I just paranoid? If it's the seeds how can I SAFELY buy good ones? Thanks, I know this is a lot at once lol .

you can get the papertowel too wet. you need a good balance of air and water. in the winter i use heat mat for speeding up the process

abudsmoker said:

you can get the papertowel too wet. you need a good balance of air and water. in the winter i use heat mat for speeding up the process

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Same here...I soak my beans in a cup of water/ Superthrive until they pop....Then to a cup of soil or Rapid Rooter....All being done under a humidity dome w/heatmat.

The heatmat gets it done a bit faster w/less failure....no doubt.

Take a couple seeds and just soak them in a cup of regular water until the seed splits open....Then transfer to your paper towel and continue....Keep them in darkness...not on the windowsill.

The T-Shirt is keeping them pretty much 100% dark while supplying natural (cost free) heat. Is this a bad idea? Thanks for the replies .

Also if you are having a hard time getting the seeds to sprout try scoring them a little. What I do is cut a piece of sand paper to fit inside a box of matches. Then I put the seeds in the box and give them a little shake up. This helps the seeds absorb water so they can sprout.

Thanks for the replies . Good advice, I'll have to try them on my next set of seeds. Hopefully they'll actually sprout. I'm pretty sure it's just bad seeds because I'm nearing the end of day 3.

some seeds take longer, especially if they are old. give them 10 days before giving up. put them in a closet. they dont need that much heat.