Lettuce
Lollo Rosso Lettuce.
The red Lolla, where curl and colour are both the product.
Two things to lose
Lollo Rosso is a red leaf with a tightly curled margin, eaten raw and carrying the red-leaf profile of the family. Its curl and its colour are both the product, and both are visible properties rather than measured ones.
Two visible properties means two ways to age. The frill relaxes as the leaf loses water, the red dulls as the pigment breaks down, and each runs on its own clock. A head can still be sound and no longer be saleable as a garnish, which is the use most of the crop is bought for.
Nearness is what protects both at once. A short run between cutting and packing keeps the curl standing and the colour deep through the days that matter, and it does that in the winter months as readily as in summer — which is where the imported alternative is weakest.
Nutrition facts
Lettuce, red leaf, raw
Per 100 g
- Energy
- 13 kcal
- Fat
- 0.22 g
- Carbohydrate
- 2.26 g
- Sugars
- 0.48 g
- Fiber
- 0.9 g
- Protein
- 1.33 g
- Sodium
- 25 mg
- Potassium
- 187 mg
- Vitamin C
- 3.7 mg
Lollo Rosso is the red Lolla type, with the same tightly curled margin as Bionda and red pigmentation through the leaf tips. It is a mixed-pack and garnish staple, bought for the colour and texture it adds rather than for mass.
What the crop needs
The crop is short-cycle and hydroponic. It carries the curled-leaf air movement requirement of the Lolla types together with the light-driven colour development of the red types, so spacing and shading affect both the health of the head and its saleable appearance.
What the greenhouse has to do
Curl and colour are both the product, and each has its own driver. Form follows a steady, unhurried climate that keeps the plant compact; pigment follows light. The two have to be held together, which is why the light plan and the screening strategy are specified against colour development and not only against growth rate.
The rest is short-cycle lettuce economics: density, the recirculating water system and the harvest route decide how many heads reach grade in a year. An appearance crop has little tolerance for an uneven floor, because a difference a buyer can see is a difference that costs the grade even when the weight is right.
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.
Lollo Rosso 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 house.
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 Crispy Lettuce
Green crispy is the dense, crunchy-leaved lettuce sold both as a wholehead and into processing, where the leaf holds its texture after cutting.
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.
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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