Germination question

plent them when the stem has portruded to a proper length, but seeds germinate with same or better percentage simply planting them, so you could technically put them in at any point and it'll be fine, because it's totally unnecessary to use a paper towel, lol. I think people just like to think they are donig something extra special for the plant but really it's just self-fellating. Just do direct-to-substrate which has fewer steps that introduce risk and not worry about it at all. Roots should enver be exposed to light nor touched with dirty fingers. A recently germinated plant that deems the local environment too harsh (some sort of feedback loops etc) will simply stop growing. They are fairly delicate and no reason to man-handle them or worry about needless exposure.