GardenBear, I'll bet those from the market would grow for you. Buy a few to eat and plant a few of them. Or you can check them by using a damp napkin for moisture and try germinating some in the house. I have read about the method, haven't done it myself so someone else can chime in and give a better description of the process. I used to have some things called Petri dishes that were used to grow cultures in the laboratory, but I no longer have them. They would be ideal for testing germination rates. They were a round plastic dish about 4 inches in diameter and about 3/4" high with a loose fitting plastic cover. That kept the moisture from evaporating too quickly and you could see when the roots started to form. I should check E-Bay or something and see if I could locate some of those again. In the early days of working in the laboratory, the Petri dishes were glass, but the plastic dishes were much less costly and less like to break.