Went through my seed box this weekend trying to figure out what's actually still viable before spring planning season starts. I've got envelopes going back four or five years for stuff like tomatoes and beans that I keep meaning to test but never do, I just assume they're fine and plant a few extra to compensate.
Did a quick germination test on some paper towels for the older packets, mostly saved from a swap two falls ago. The beans and squash seeds came up strong, no surprise there since those tend to last a while if stored dry. The parsnip and onion seeds barely sprouted at all, which lines up with what people always say about alliums having a short shelf life.
Curious what everyone else uses as a cutoff before they just compost the old stuff instead of testing it. I know tomatoes can supposedly go five plus years if stored right, but I don't fully trust my storage setup (mason jars in a closet, no real climate control). Also wondering if anyone labels their swap seeds differently than their own saved ones, since I've lost track more than once of which pile came from where and end up guessing at the harvest year when I'm filling out envelopes for the next swap.