Seed germination and growing suggestions?

[dice]

I did not like the compressing of the seed mix (dang it!).

Not fatal, the seedlings simply have to put a little more energy
into rooting. If you have a container mix with a lot of earthworm
castings in it (like 1/3 to 1/2), those lack any air space once they
get wet (physical structure of wet mud), so compressing the mix
from top watering is more of an issue for the seedlings than in a
mostly peat or mostly coir seed-starting mix.

Peat takes awhile to re-wet once it dries out completely. I use
a $7 moisture meter to test to get an idea of how dry they are
and how long it takes them to get how dry after they have been
watered. Sometimes they look moist and feel moist on the top,
yet the moisture meter tells me that they need watering.

If the seedlings are not wilting, they are not too dry yet,
no matter what the moisture meter says. But if it reads down
in the dry range, they are very close to wilting, and one hot day
can do damage.

Your high humidity inside your plastic cover probably provides
some protection against that.