Lettuce, like many annuals, does not need cold-moist stratification or other elaborate dormancy-releasing steps. Just plant them in consistently moist
cool soil. Cover very lightly, like 1/8th inch. Consider about 60 seeds per foot in a 2-4" wide band, but you may then have to thin them to a spacing of 8-12 inches depending on variety.
http://www.territorialseed.com...
They will germinate much slower or not at all in warm soil! Soil temps as low as 40F are OK. Air temps may be 60-70F, but soil temps should be low for fast or complete lettuce germination.
One really nice thing about lettuce is that it is pretty much self-pollinating. That means that even if you have two lettuce varieties going to seed side-by-side, there will be very little or no cross-pollination.
Another nice thing about self-pollinators is that they don't need a large population size to stay vigorous if you save seeds for many generations. They are stable even if the population size is "one".
Many vegetables are "out-crossers" and need you to keep seeds from 30, 50 or 100 parents to keep the gene pool healthy and not too inbred over many generations. That is not a concern with self-pollinators like lettuce or tomatoes, and I THINK not beans or peas.
I think you can save seed even from out-crossers for a few years, without worrying about keeping dozens of parents. But you might have to go back to a seed vendor every few generations to get back to a vigorous gene pool.
Keep 'em dry! I hope you decide to share your saved seeds, and trade for other people's saved and commercial seeds!
http://garden.org/apps/swap/vi...
