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The seeds for wholehead Lettuce are grown by specialist plant raisers. They have the all-important job of growing the seeds into sturdy seedlings. Over the years a variety of seeds have been developed to cope with different climates, seasons and soil types.

The seeds, which are coated to aid germination, are planted in small blocks of compost and then covered with sand.

The seedlings are carefully grown in large greenhouses in temperature-controlled conditions. They take about 3 weeks to reach the size where they are ready to be planted in the field. The plant raisers work is now done and they hand over the precious seedlings to the various salad crop growers around the country.


Before the seedlings are planted, specialised machinery goes to work to transplant the lettuce to the system. This ensures the young plants have the best possible start.

A lot of care and attention is put into the planting of the seedlings. A skilled planter ensures that the compost blocks go into the system at a set distance apart, and a supervisor will also check to make sure the seedlings are correctly planted

While they are growing, salad leaves are carefully tended and nurtured to prevent disease and damage. Farm managers walk the crops every day checking their progress.

Nutrients and irrigation are required to maintain the best possible growing conditions and these are applied under a carefully managed process. This crop management system produces a healthy and consistent quality at harvest.

Most Glasshouse Nursery's use sophisticated weather stations to constantly monitor conditions likely to produce high levels of disease. With this early warning system, appropriate action can be taken to avoid loss or damage of the crop,  (a thrip is one of the tiniest known pests).

All these processes follow the protocol laid down in the Assured Produce Scheme - designed by growers and retailers to regulate crop management procedures for safe food production.


Harvesting


While baby leaf salads are generally harvested by a machine, wholehead is cut and wrapped by hand, Although this can be done by machine.

Each product is hand-picked by a disciplined crew of harvest workers, making sure that the product conforms to the customers’ specifications of size, weight, appearance and maturity.

Wholehead crops are cut and the product transferred to the rig where it is graded and put into boxes before being sent for cooling. The harvesting crew continually check the quality of the wholehead so only the best possible product leaves the Glasshouse.

Each batch of produce contains information about the rig that harvested it, so any problems - for instance with labelling - can be immediately traced and corrected.


To guarantee the best shelf-life, wholehead varieties in particular need to be cooled as quickly as possible after harvesting.

Growers aim to cool the salad leaves to 3°C within 2 hours of leaving the Glasshouse
This is no mean feat when you consider that on a hot day the core temperature of an Iceberg lettuce, for example, can reach 26°C. High-tech coolers can rapidly cool up to a hundred tonnes of fresh produce every day.

When baby leaf salad varieties are ready for harvesting, highly specialised harvesting machines cut up to two to three tonnes of leaves an hour.

The leaves are then transferred to highly sophisticated pack houses, located close to the Glasshouse so within hours, the plants have been chilled, and packed into 'washed and ready to eat' bags.