Lollo Bionda Lettuce — DutchGreenhouses

Tightly curled green leaf, sold on appearance

Lollo Bionda is the green Lolla type, with a tightly curled and frilled leaf margin. It is bought for appearance and volume in a pack rather than for weight, and it holds its structure well after cutting.

What the crop needs

The crop is short-cycle and hydroponic. The curled leaf traps moisture in the head, so air movement through the crop matters more than it does for an open-leaved type, and the end of the cycle is where that shows. Uniformity of curl and colour is a cultivar property.

What the greenhouse has to do

Lollo Bionda is sold on appearance, and the curl is the appearance. A head that runs soft or stretches loses the tight leaf structure the buyer is paying for, so the climate is held to protect form rather than to chase weight — steady temperature, light that keeps the plant compact, and no periods that push it into stretching.

The cycle is short and the house turns often, so density, the recirculating water system and the harvest route decide annual output. Because the product is judged by eye, the floor has to be consistent: a bay that runs warm produces heads that look different from the ones beside them, and in an appearance crop that difference is a grade.

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.

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.

Questions

Lollo Bionda 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.

Crop data

Lollo Bionda lettuce — reference values

Reference values from the DutchGreenhouses crop model, each traced to its Dutch source below. Ranges describe published practice across systems and seasons; a project setpoint is calculated for the actual greenhouse, crop and climate.

Day climateMedium confidence¹

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 zoneMedium confidence¹

Supply EC: 1.6–1.8 mS/cm
Supply pH: 5.5–6 pH

Where these come from

WUR, 2018, WPR-813 — Lettuce on water under glass with LED. WUR research report · High confidence · E067Primary direct evidence, but one research greenhouse and four named lettuce types/cultivars. Numeric values are operating observations, not universal optima.

These are reference values, not a specification. DutchGreenhouses does not publish project setpoints; those are calculated per greenhouse, crop and location.

From the knowledge base