Lettuce
Green Crispy Lettuce.
A dense, crunchy head that suits both wholehead sale and high density.
Start with the saleable product
Texture first.
Then the harvest format.
Agree the product specification, then connect the cultivar and cultivation route to the available space and daily work.
Define crispy
Use an agreed sample to describe texture, leaf form and colour; the commercial name does not identify a single cultivar.
Whole head or cut leaf
A head specification and a processing specification require separate grading and yield records.
Control the finish
Agree size and leaf condition before selecting final spacing and harvest stage.
Cultivation choices
How to cultivate.
Choose the route around the saleable head, the root ball or trimmed presentation, and the work needed to finish and harvest it.
Moving gutters · MGS
A hydroponic route that moves the crop and can increase spacing as heads develop. Plan each transfer and spacing stage around the finished head.
Hydroponic tables
Tables support the crop; the irrigation method is a separate choice. Compare fixed NFT channels with plant carriers on ebb-and-flow tables.
Deep-water culture
Plants are supported above a reservoir of nutrient solution. Raft handling, root-zone oxygenation and cleaning belong in the growing plan.
Soil cultivation & organic
A non-hydroponic route with soil beds, irrigation and crop handling. Organic production also depends on the applicable standard and full growing practice; soil alone does not establish certification.
Climate & season
A crop plan for
the actual conditions.
Location, season and cultivar guide the schedule. A greenhouse and its technology must be designed around those conditions.
Match the production season
Review the cultivar and finished product under the local light and intended planting period.
Keep the leaf sound
Coordinate root-zone management, air movement and humidity around the crop’s leaf condition.
Use a reviewed schedule
Establish this type’s timing and spacing from a reviewed cultivar and season record before forecasting deliveries.
Cultivation & daily work
Make the growing
routine workable.
The system should support the crop and the people caring for it. Review access, handling and cleaning as part of the layout.
Trial the cutting step
For processing, assess the accepted leaf sizes and handling losses.
Grade the whole head
For head sales, inspect shape, base cleanliness and outer leaf condition.
Protect the texture
Organise harvest, cooling and dispatch around the condition required at delivery.
Dense enough to travel, better when it does not
Crisphead is the densest head in the family and the plainest eating: water, a little fibre, potassium and vitamin C, taken raw. The wrapped structure protects the inner leaf, which is why the type keeps its texture after cutting and why processors take it by the pallet.
That toughness is what turns it into a shipping crop. A dense head survives a long chain, so it is routinely grown far from where it is eaten and arrives intact. Intact and fresh part company somewhere in the middle. The leaf keeps respiring inside the box, the core discolours, and the crunch the head is bought for softens quietly under the wrapper.
Growing near the market means the head does not have to spend its shelf life on the road. A short chain leaves those days to the buyer instead of to the journey, and where the alternative is imported salad through the cold months, it also covers a season the local field cannot.
Nutrition facts
Lettuce, crisphead, raw
Per 100 g
- Energy
- 14 kcal
- Fat
- 0.14 g
- Carbohydrate
- 2.97 g
- Sugars
- 1.97 g
- Fiber
- 1.2 g
- Protein
- 0.9 g
- Sodium
- 10 mg
- Potassium
- 141 mg
- Vitamin C
- 2.8 mg
Green crispy is the dense, crunchy-leaved type sold both as a wholehead and into processing, where the leaf holds its texture after cutting. The portfolio of cultivars is unusually wide for a single lettuce type, because breeders have selected separately for wholehead sale and for high-density production.
What the crop needs
The crop is short-cycle and hydroponic. A dense head is the product and also the risk: the tighter the head closes, the harder it is for the inner leaf to transpire, and the more the climate at the end of the cycle decides whether the crop finishes clean. Spacing is a cultivar-by-product decision rather than a fixed rule.
What the greenhouse has to do
Green crispy is grown two ways — as a wholehead sold by the piece, and at high density for processing — and the greenhouse is dimensioned differently for each. Density sets plants per square metre, and that in turn sets the water system, the light requirement and the harvest method together. The decision belongs before the building, not after it.
A dense head also wants light. Heads that fill unevenly across the floor arrive at the same harvest day at different weights, and a batch harvested as one unit is graded on its worst heads. Even transmission and even air movement are what keep a batch together, which is why the screening strategy and the ventilation are specified with the density rather than around it.
DutchGreenhouses® designs the structure, climate, screening and irrigation around the lettuce type, its system and the local climate, so cycles turn at the head quality the market grades on. Get in touch to plan a lettuce greenhouse.
Green crispy lettuce, asked and answered
Is head weight or head count the right target?
Lettuce is sold by the head, so the count reaching grade in a year decides revenue. A heavier head grown more slowly can earn less than a lighter head on a shorter cycle.
Does the cultivar matter more than the type?
For head mass, density tolerance and tipburn risk, yes. Those are cultivar properties, which is why a lettuce project is planned around a named cultivar rather than around the type alone.
What causes tipburn?
Calcium not reaching the fastest-growing leaf margins, driven by transpiration and root pressure rather than by supply. Climate control addresses it; adding calcium to the solution generally does not.
Other lettuce
varieties.
Repeat harvests. Consistent head quality and size. The class you sell decides the plant load, the harvest rhythm and the greenhouse.
Butterhead Lettuce
Butterhead is the soft-leaved wholehead lettuce sold with its outer leaves intact, and the type most European buyers picture when they specify lettuce.
Green Oakleaf Lettuce
Green oakleaf lettuce is a lobed, soft-leaved head grown for leaf shape rather than for weight.
Lollo Bionda Lettuce
Lollo Bionda is the green Lolla lettuce, with a tightly curled leaf margin and bought for appearance rather than for weight.
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Lollo Rosso is the red Lolla lettuce, where the tightly curled leaf margin and the red pigmentation are both the product.
Red Crispy Lettuce
Red crispy is the red-pigmented counterpart of the green crispy head, sold wholehead and into mixed-leaf packs where colour intensity is part of the specification.
Red Oakleaf Lettuce
Red oakleaf lettuce carries the lobed leaf of the oakleaf types with red pigmentation, and most often reaches the consumer inside a multi-type pack.
The greenhouse behind lettuce
Lettuce under glass.
Table systems with floaters, Moving Gutter Systems (MGS) or Deep Water using NFT or ebb and
Work back from head size, crop cycle and harvest handling to the growing system, spacing and climate.
Repeat harvests. Consistent head quality and size.
Table systems with floaters, Moving Gutter Systems (MGS) or Deep Water using NFT or ebb and.
Plan heads sold per cycle, grades, packing and repeat orders.
Basic Organic Greenhouse Series
Venlo glasshouses for soil-based crops. Set the crop, beds, access and production calendar before specifying the systems.
¼ acre½ acre1 acreExplore Basic
Expert Hydroponic Greenhouse Series
A defined structure for commercial hydroponics. The crop determines the growing system, climate strategy and harvest layout.
½ acre1 acre2 acresExplore Expert3,840 m²41,333 sq ft of growing space is where a lettuce plan usually starts (GrowPro Basic 1 acre). Compare all nine models
Put your next harvest
under glass.
Your crop, your site and the volume you want to sell. Let's find the greenhouse and systems to match.
Need a custom greenhouse?GrowPro Basic
We can also plan for another crop or a mixed growing programme.
Talk about your project Continue to our contact form. No commitment.Reads you might find interesting
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