How do I germinate seed?

Okay, I know how but I'm not getting great results. So I have some questions.

Should I start the seed on my porch or in full sun? It gets hot, almost 100 here in the summer.

When can I stop watering from the bottom? Should I not let the seed flat sit in water? Should I instead fill it w/ water, put in the flat for a little while and then take it out of the water tray?

How do I water it when I use fertilizer? How much fertilizer am I supposed to use and how often?

I think that was it...

I think you have a valid question, because we, who grow from seed learned from experience, and we only know what works for us.Not knowing any thing about the system you are using, I cannot tell what went wrong, but guessing, I'd say they dround.I have ruined more than I want to think about, in the process of trying to grow from seed.Seed need light and water, but they need to be limited to both.I have schorched them, and over shadowed them, then it hit me that light doesn't have to be full sun, and water doesn't have to be a wash out.If you have a porch with shadded light, that sounds good.I hope you understand that where you are, I have been, but I wanted to "bump" this so I can learn too.Mike

I can answer a couple of the questions.

I would probably start the seeds on the porch rather than in full sun. Many seeds do need light to germinate and will need bright light to grow, but 100 degree temps will make your flats dry out way too quickly and will fry young seedlings

Don't let the flat sit in water constantly, that's a recipe for fungal problems. Unless you buy a capillary mat like some growers use, then you can leave the mat under it all the time because the amount of water that goes into the soil is controlled. But just sitting in water is going to be bad for it.

And for fertilizing, I generally start fertilizing when the seedlings get their first set of true leaves. But even then, I do it at about 1/4 of the normal strength, seedlings are easy to burn so you don't want to use full strength

You've gotten excellent advice. Let me refine a couple of points -

Unfortunately, different seeds have different needs (starting sound like Sesame street around here!). A lot of the catalogs that you can purchase them from (or even the packs that they come in) will give ease of starting ratings, or at least more specific directions on what their seeds like.

Very generally speaking (VERY):
-Don't let them sit in water, but do keep the soil evenly moist. You can bottom water if the soil soaks up all the water, dump any leftover. Or soak the soil when you seed and then use a sprayer/ mister (aka old window cleaner bottle well washed out) to keep them damp.
-A lot of seeds germinate at about 70-80 degrees. The more consistent the temps are, the better luck you'll probably have.
-Once the seeds have sprouted, they need high humidity, but, just to make it fun, they also need good circulation so they don't get the fungal problems Ecrane mentioned. A little bit of a breeze will also strengthen stems. But you don't want it so breezy that the soil or leaves dry out. Tricky, huh?
-Once you start to fertilize (I rarely do, but that's just me) if you get a water soluable fertilizer, you can just add it in your water.

If you're a reader, a book that helped me was "The New Seed Starters" - it also gives specific directions on many types of seeds.

Good luck, it's amazingly satisfying to raise plants from seeds, IMO.