SteveB wrote:
My wife is the daughter of a depression baby, and has a sometimes bad
habit of keeping things she should throw away.

We planted some Bush contender string beans last year, nice
germination time, and great growers and producers right into frost.

We had seeds left over, which she kept in a plastic ziploc in the
garden shed, temps sometimes very hot, and then through a freezing
winter.
This year, it seems they to be taking a long time to germinate. Is
there a good estimate of how long seeds are good for? I would say to
buy just enough for what you need each year, but perhaps you find a
strain that you really like, and don't know if they will carry that at
the seed store next year.


No. You will find several tables of viability of seeds available on the
web. The problem is that the time is very dependent on species (from a few
months to tens of year), the conditions they are stored under and how you
define viability.

On the last point seeds do not all cease to germinate at a given interval
after harvest. You might get 95% after a year, 70% after two and 30% after
three, and so on until you eventually reach zero. If you are growing
commercially or only have 5 seeds, 30% might be quite unacceptable, if you
have lots of seed and you are prepared to wait and plant out those that
germinate it might be fine.


And tips on storage from season to season would be appreciated.


Cool and dry. Not in the shed!

David