hey buddy, welcome to the forum, hope all is well your side
who/where did you get your seeds from? you got any more?? this is not recommended for auto seeds when growing them, but you can test their viability by leaving them in a cup of water for 12 to 24hrs. if after 12hrs they're still floating, give a slight tap with your finger tip to see if any sinks to the bottom. the sinkers are for sure viable, leave the floaters till the 24hr mark, give another small tap to see if any sinks. the sinkers are viable and should pop (though maybe not with the autos) the floaters have high probability of being duds. if they all float, contact the seed supplier to see if they don't wana be generous enough to replace them. technically they don't have to, but some seed banks do.
the reason I say it's not recommended when growing auto seeds is because generally with autos you wana pop the seed right in its final pot with no intention to ever repot and never interfere with them or else you hinder them too much and they turn on you, but in your situation you kinda need to test if they're any good at all.
if you growing autos you have no need to concern yourself with what time of the year it is since autos grow and flower independant of light cycles. some seasoned growers keep auto seeds on hand so they have something to pop in winter when they can't pop photoperiods, specifically for the reason that they don't have to worry about what time of year it is.
only when growing photoperiods outdoors you need to follow the seasons. sowing in spring, vegging through spring and summer, flower in fall through winter.
but really if you look at the seasons here in SA, we start spring in Sept, but this year everyone who had plants outside in Sept. had early flowers, because the seasons are all fucked cause of that global warming thing. so we focus more on hours of light. any spot in your garden that gets 16hrs or more of sunlight will be the spot to veg a plant, anything less than 16hrs you probably gona induce flowers. so even if you got a photoperiod it will act as a auto, starting to flower really soon.
seeing as you dealing with auto seeds, in your defence, they have a reputation of being full of shit. one wrong move and they flip you the finger. I really feel that photoperiods leave more room for error, and even if you mess them up you have a greater chance of fixing your problem and still ending up with some bud.
I would also chime in on the whole growing medium thing, seeing as it's autos and you don't wana repot, don't think popping in one medium and then repotting to another is an option. you gona have to get one and stick to it. let us know what you using right now and maybe some pictures?
I would recommend a lower/lesser nutrient soil, because you can always add nutrients and topdress with worm castings and all that, but because you going to pop a seed you putting yourself at risk when using hot soil. seedlings don't need much food, they get enough food from clean tap water untill they start showing first set of true leaves. just a note, it's harder to remove nutrients from hot soil than it is to add nutrients and in a organic situation the golden key is "less is more"
hope you get something going sooooon
✌