LEAF CROP HARVESTER

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a leaf crop harvester made up of a pair of holding belts for leaf crop and other several components, easy to harvest even soft bulb leaf crops such as lettuce, subject to no damage, and excellent in conveying ability and operability. SOLUTION: This leaf crop harvester is made up of a pair of holding belts 12 to laterally hold a leaf crop, a belt holding force detective means, a belt space detective means to detect a space between a pair of belts 12 when they are holding a leaf crop, a leaf crop holding means to hold a leaf crop with a proper force even in case leaf crop size varies as a result from the above- mentioned two means, and a cutting means such as cutting edges 20 to cut the rhizome of a leaf crop held by the leaf crop holding means. Both the belt holding force detective means and the belt space detective means detect both the size and softness of a leaf crop and determine whether it is unripe or properly ripe; if unripe, it is left on the field; thus, only properly ripe leaf crops are harvested.