[Tania]

I think that knowing the year the seeds were produced is much more useful information, assuming the germination tests are done by vendors every year on seeds produced in previous years.

This gives gardeners a good idea on how long the purchased seeds could be stored, if they are not planted the same year or if they want to continue planting the same variety from the original seed packets in subsequent years.

So I really appreciate how Carolyn puts year when the seeds were saved on her packets. When I order seeds from other SSE members, I also ask them to put the year, and most of them do that for me, but some do not. This year I had seeds from SSE members dated as far back as 2002, and germination was 60-80%, which was very impressive, given the fact that most of the SSE members do not have facilities to store their seeds in long term storage.

I tested my 2005 and 2006 seeds for germination in April this year, and most came close to 100%. However, I do store them in a fridge, which may help to keep them more viable.

I am not aware of any seed vendors except Blue Ribbon Tomatoes (in 2009, but I hope she continues doing that) who'd put year saved on the packet. I started doing it last year, but still have a few 'old style' labels that I have to use that do not have the information printed on them.

I understand what Carolyn says, as having no seed saved or packaged dates is much worse than at least having a 'packed by' date as a guidance!