Lettuce
Red Crispy Lettuce.
The crispy head in red, where colour development is part of the grade.
Colour that has to arrive
Red leaf carries the raw profile of the family with the anthocyanin pigment on top. Both the vitamins and the pigment sit in a leaf that is eaten uncooked, so nothing is prepared out of them and nothing is put back.
Colour is why the head is bought, and colour is the first thing it loses. Red edges dull and brown as the leaf ages, and a head a few days past its best reads as tired long before it reads as spoiled. In a mixed pack the whole pack is judged on it.
That makes the run to the pack house part of the specification. A crop grown near where it is assembled and eaten arrives with the colour it was cut with, and the pack keeps the contrast it was designed around instead of losing it somewhere in transit.
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
Red crispy is the red-pigmented counterpart of the green crispy head, sold wholehead and into mixed-leaf packs where its colour is the reason it is there. Colour intensity is part of the specification, not a bonus, and it develops in response to light rather than to nutrition.
What the crop needs
The crop is short-cycle and hydroponic. It carries the same density and tipburn considerations as green crispy, with the added requirement that the head colours evenly. Light reaching the outer leaf is what drives pigment, so spacing and any shading strategy affect the grade directly rather than only the growth rate.
What the greenhouse has to do
Colour is part of the grade here, and colour is a light response. A red crispy head that finishes pale is downgraded whatever it weighs, so the light plan is specified for pigment development as well as for growth, and the screening strategy has to give the crop the light it needs without the heat load that comes with it.
The rest is dense-head lettuce. The crop turns quickly, so density, the recirculating water system and the harvest route decide annual output. Because a batch is cut as one unit, unevenness across the floor shows up as split colour within a single harvest — which makes even transmission worth more here than in a green type.
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.
Red 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 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.
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 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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