I had some parlor palm seeds given to me and the germination was erratic. It seems like they took from 1 month to 3 months and they are fairly slow growing. You can buy a small 3-4" pot of them at walmart of Home Depot, etc. for $1.99. But it is fun to grow from seed. I think your egg carton will be to shallow. Go to to the store or keep your eye out for some cheap plastic 16 ounce drinking cups and use them to start your seeds. Since your in college you can probably pick up several cups at your next kegger. lol. drill holes in the bottom or cut hole in the bottom. fill them up 7/8 of the way with a good draining potting soil, add you seeds, put a thin layer of soil on top and water well. no problem.

Thank you for your response. If the egg carton will be too shallow I will just start popping them out and transplanting them into yogurt containers. (The entire thing, dirt and seeds, so as to not disturb anything they may be busy doing in there.) I should have some time to do this yet because they have only been planted for about 2 weeks now.

Also, once they start growing I may have to post some for trade. I planted 100 seeds!

:) Just found this when I was searching for advice on how long it took these seeds to sprout...I was given some also and super excited about them as I planted some to use as Christmas gifts this year...I planted them a few weeks ago and haven't seen them sprout yet...so this gives me hope and I won't throw them away...almost thought about throwing them away or planting something else in that soil/pot and starting over and plant some new parlor palm seeds thinking they just weren't taking for me...however I'm glad I read this...I'll wait it out and am excited to know I haven't missed the sprouts yet :)