When I want to plant some seeds, I take the jar out of the fridge and remove however many seeds of a particular strain I want to grow and immediately re-cover and put the jar back in the fridge. Way out back behind the jars of other stuff that's way past its expiration date and have been ignored for months (often times longer
).
I want the storage group to spend as little time out of the fridge as possible.
Then I take the selected seeds and put them in a glass of rain water and a bit of worm castings. The microbes in the castings help ward off various diseases like damping off disease and help get the new plant off to a good start. I then stick the glass in a warm, dark cabinet usually overnight or two.
I'll leave them in there until they split open and reveal a bit of leg and then immediately plant them. But max time in the water is 48 hours. Any seed that hasn't popped by then gets the wet paper towel treatment.
And I don't push them down into the water. They'll get plenty of moisture just floating on the surface where they also have ample access to oxygen. The whole "only the viable seeds will sink to the bottom" thing is an old wive's tale. In fact, because of the whole oxygen thing I prefer that my seeds do NOT sink. If they do, I usually pour out some of the water so they're closer to the surface and air.
If you think about it, in nature seeds don't germinate at the bottom of a puddle but rather in a moist, but aerated, environment of soil.
So, the overnight soak ensures the seed gets ample moisture to kick off the germinating process, but you could plant them in your dampened medium as soon as you take them out of the fridge if you want to skip the soaking stage.