--- title: "Green Crispy Lettuce" description: "Green crispy is the dense, crunchy-leaved lettuce sold both as a wholehead and into processing, where the leaf holds its texture after cutting. Reference values with their Dutch sources, and what the crop asks of a greenhouse." canonical: "https://dutchgreenhouses.com/crops/lettuce/green-crispy-lettuce" locale: "en" updated: "2026-08-11" --- # Green Crispy Lettuce > Part of: [Lettuce](/crops/lettuce.md) · Provider: [DutchGreenhouses](/) Green crispy lettuce is the dense, crunchy-leaved type sold as a wholehead and into processing, where the leaf holds its texture after cutting. Breeders select separately for wholehead sale and for high-density production, which gives the type a wide cultivar portfolio and makes spacing a cultivar-by-product decision. Production is short-cycle and hydroponic. Lettuce # Green crispy lettuce. A dense, crunchy head that suits both wholehead sale and high density. 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 house 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. ## Crop data Green crispy lettuce ### Day climate1 Air temperature 21–22.7 °C Relative humidity 60–80 % Daily light integral 11.5–13.2 mol/m²/d CO₂ concentration 1000–1100 ppm ### Irrigation and root zone1 Supply EC 1.6–1.8 mS/cm Supply pH 5.5–6 pH Sources (1) - WUR, 2018, WPR-813 — Lettuce on water under glass with LED E067 Reference values, not a specification. Setpoints are calculated per greenhouse, crop and location. Related ## Other lettuce varieties and the systems behind them ### Butterhead lettuce Soft, loosely wrapped leaves, and the type least tolerant of handling. ### Greenleaf / Batavia lettuce A firmer, more robust head than butterhead, and it travels better. ### Romaine lettuce The upright head, and the tipburn risk that comes with it. ### Hydroponics Substrate growing with drip supply and drain recirculation. ### Climate Heating, cooling, humidity control and carbon dioxide dosing. ## 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 Source: USDA FoodData Central, FDC 169248 Questions ## 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. 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