IBC totes for date growers and packers

Organic means documented

An organic program asks what touches the crop and the water. A tote of unknown past cannot be put on that record. A grower should choose a tote with food-only history and a log, or a new bottle, and keep the paperwork where the certifier can see it. The food-grade history guide lists what the log needs.

Dates were Riverside County's second-largest commodity in 2024, at $145.4 million, so the stakes are large relative to the cost of a tote.

Heat is the other half

The Coachella Valley is hot, and a clear tote in a yard is a greenhouse for algae and a slow bake for the plastic. The desert sun guide covers the signs. A chalky bottle is retired; the cage may live on in a rebottled tote.

Growers and packers are not the same buyer

A grower wants a few totes for water. A packer wants totes that touch the process and its records. Say which in the request. The Coachella Valley page lists the ZIP codes, and the water totes page covers the grower's case.

A packhouse and a grove, compared

A grower irrigating a block wants water at a steady rate, covered from the sun and delivered through a filter. A packhouse washing fruit wants a clean tote with a record, and wants it for the same shift every day. The first cares about algae and heat; the second cares about records and rinse water.

Write to us as whichever one you are. A packer who sounds like a grower will receive advice about drip lines, and a grower who sounds like a packer will be asked for documentation they may not need.

Packhouse washing

Water used on harvested fruit is a food-contact input. Keep its tote under the same hygiene program as the line it feeds.

Harvest timing

Date harvest runs in the autumn, with pollination and thinning in the spring. Totes are used for irrigation all year and for washing in the harvest.

Shade and covers

A shade cloth or a simple frame with a tarp keeps both heat and light off the tote and costs far less than replacing a ruined bottle.

Questions people ask