true, del....I've never heard of putting a seed down in a jar of water anyways...the root trying to come out needs some air...I've ALWAYS gotten a sprout from putting the seed in a few folded wet paper towels...I think they like that solid medium to actually dig into...I've never put them directly in the soil, but I imagine that would work best or just like the paper towel...they wanna dig, I had a sprout dig all the way through the paper towel before!