Noob here, too, but I've had good luck with the paper towels. Put seeds in towels and wet the towels (I actually wet them, not just damp). Not so wet that that they're dripping, but real close. Put towels in a sandwich baggie, blow air into it and seal, so it's like a "pillow." In this closed environment the water will evaporate and form drops on the "roof" of the pillow. It will actually rain in there. Put the "pillow" in a small, flat box, and set the box someplace warm (but not too warm). Everyone says refrigerator and that sounds like great place. I set my box on top of an Ethernet switch and WiFi router that get a little warm (but not hot at all). It's right next to my weather station monitor which says the indoor temperature there fluctuates maybe 2 degrees from 75F.

So far, it seems like good seeds sprout in a day to a day and a half. Again, I'm a noob, so haven't done too many of these. Plant as soon as you have a sprout -- I do the same as Weez, but have some perlite in the beercups of coco. Perlite in the beercups of coco should be the name of a c&w song or something.

My limited experience: couple days for plants to start poking out of the coco, once they're planted. Seems like you should be able to go from dry seed to something green sticking out of something that looks like dirt in 3-6 days. I've had a couple die once they came out of the dirt and still not sure why.

The science ain't exact.