Lettuce
Lollo Rosso Lettuce.
The red Lolla, where curl and colour are both the product.
Start with the saleable product
The right red.
The right finished head.
The product is more than a heavy head. Agree the colour pattern and depth, the curl and the finished pack appearance before choosing the cultivar and harvest schedule.
Colour through the head
Define the accepted red coverage and contrast. Different red cultivars do not give the same colour pattern.
Whole head or living head
Retained roots and trimmed bases require different handling. The finished pack must protect the frilled leaves.
Mass and appearance together
A head that reaches the weight target may still miss the buyer’s appearance specification. Grade against both.
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.
Review colour in the actual light
Cultivar and the greenhouse light environment influence colour development. Check the intended season and any lighting strategy together.
Allow a separate schedule
Rosso and Bionda should have independently reviewed schedules. Do not force them into the same harvest date just because they share a greenhouse.
Protect the leaf finish
Head quality depends on the root environment, air movement and humidity as well as colour. Check the crop condition before extending the finishing period.
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.
Choose the red type
Compare colour penetration, leaf texture and head habit with the buyer’s specification.
Coordinate the mix
For mixed packs, plan starting dates and occupied growing space for each component.
Grade for colour and condition
Packing work includes colour, leaf damage, base quality and head size. A colour target alone does not define a saleable head.
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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