Saving lettuce seed?

I have some burgundy-leafed lettuce bordering my front bed that bolted and produced these awesome stalks of flowers. I've never let lettuce go to seed before, but these looked pretty cool, so I thought, why not? There are buds and small yellow flowers and pods with little silky white tufts on top... The pods eventually open and look like little dandelion puffs with black seeds down at the base, and then the fluff blows away and leaves a dried pod with some seeds still in it.

My question is, at what stage are the seeds ready to harvest? The dried up pods seem to have lost many of their seeds, so I'm thinking I should pick the pods when they first start opening up? At that stage the seeds are black/brown rather than pale green & soft, but they don't seem quite as hard as the seeds that are left on the dried up pods.

Any tips on telling when the seeds are mature, or on how to harvest or de-chaff the seeds would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Yes, follow your intuition,
You should pick the pods when they first start opening up, or shake the lettuce head in a bag if all the flowers are maturing at different times (which happens all the time). To de-chaff, you can rubb the seeds between you hands and blow away the bad stuff (lung power, wind power or fan power). If you are doing it commercially, when the lettuce has reached the maturity, you take it out of the soil, let it dry for a time (not to dry so it cracks, otherwise the plant will break down and you will have much more problem to separate the good stuff from the bad stuff), you can beat the heads to get the seeds and pour the seeds from a container to an another under a slow wind.

Be carefull as the chaff is allergenic, if you have a mask, do not bother to be brave ;-))

Thanks, zarcanat! All the flowers are indeed maturing at different times, so I liked your tip about shaking the stalks into a bag. I'll pop a mask on, too. With luck, I'll end up with more lettuce seed than you could shake a stick at -- plenty to spare and to share!

Yes indeed, I heard that a single head can produce up to 10 000 seeds. Incredible, isn't it!

WOW !!!

I don't think my variety is quite that prolific... Looks like at least 50 buds on a stalk, maybe 30 or 40 seeds in a bud, so that would be 200 seeds per plant... Even if my estimate is low by an order of magnitude, that doesn't get my lettuce to 10,000 seeds, but I think I'll still manage to collect a gracious plenty!

Most folks who save lettuce seed bag the stalk, but you need to do it when most of the pods have already formed but are still green.

Lettuce is an 'outcrosser' and requires more than one plant to pollinate, even though male and female flowers are present on the same plant...they just can't pollinate each other.

Usually folks use Remay or some sort of breathable material that you can stitch a bag with a closeable bottom. Just don't tie it on so tight that you kill the stalk.

Thanks, Melody, that makes sense. I'd do it if these lettuce plants weren't bordering my front landscape bed -- it already looks odd that they've turned into these towering, blooming plants, and I think I'd be pushing it with the neighbors if I made the plants wear Remay bonnets, LOL.