Get a mister and spray the soil around the seeds and the seeds themselves. What do you mean by dwindled and shrunk? Like, they came out and were big and now they are smaller and dry? How could you see the taproots? Unless you were using rapid rooters or something, where you can peak without disruption, you shouldn't be looking at those roots. You bury the seeds and the next time you see the plant it's a little seedling. Light damages taproots. What soil did you put them in? Not much info in your thread, try again, and maybe a photo would help.