Yo Ho Afternoon Delight,
Please allow us to be generous, and giving first !!!!
Allow us all to welcome you to this house of delights, desoils, deseeds, dewaters, and degreenery, LOL
We are glad to have ya here with us. Please do take a few moments to peruse the site rules as they work well for all of us. You will find that this is a place where you can read up on what is hot and what isn't. How to do it yourself and what not to do, as well as growing techniques that are rather unique to say the least.
We also welcome your thoughts and knowledge, and hope that you will feel comfortable enough to share laughter and fun.
Welcome again !!!!!
You want to solve this question before you waste more time and coin. I would consider starting over, but not untill I had given up all hope. I would want to be certain that the soil is right for starting out with. NO FERTS to start either. good moisture and good lighting. Try to get your temps as close to around 76-78* as is possible, but don't panic if you slip off the mark a tad, it is after all a weed, and a pretty hardy one at that. Some folks don't use the paper towel method as you can get paper towels that have been made with contaminants in them such as bleach, dyes, perfumes, etc. etc. I once grew a weird fungus that was pink and round and flat all over my paper towel, and I am sure that this didn't help at all.
I like to use peat plugs as they seem to do real well for me. This also gives me the chance to observe the containers of soil in case there is something like an infestation of fungus gnats, and I did have that very thing happen.
You will find a great deal of help is right at hand and a good sense of Ha-Ha sure does help too.
Lighting is a great deal of what you want to be in total control of. I vegged using grow lights that were for very large terrariums. 6 of them at 48 inches each, and my plants went nuts growing for me.
Good Luck
smoke in peace
KingKahuuna