Used IBC totes in Florida City, Florida

What the sources say about Florida City

The southern end of the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike meets US 1 in Florida City, and it is the last mainland stop north of the Florida Keys.

Winter tomatoes, squash and other truck crops were packed at the Florida City State Farmers' Market near Krome Avenue and Palm Drive.

More background on Florida City

The city covers 6.1 square miles, 1.14 percent of it water, and Wikipedia gives a mean annual precipitation of 56.1 inches.

ZIP codes and neighbors

33034, 33035. Nearest: Homestead (85,796), Cutler Bay (45,833).

What that means for totes

Our reading: packing and growing businesses around the farmers' market use water and cleaning liquids in volume. Rinsed totes for wash water or irrigation are the match to ask about.

Describe the access, since farm roads vary.

A city of 6.1 square miles at the end of the Turnpike has little room for equipment. Our reading: farm and packing requests here are about moving totes in and out through a few roads, so describe the road and the gate.

Before you buy in Florida City, walk the lane from the road to the pad. A packing shed may have a firm yard, but a back field may have a narrow, soft track. A tote on soft ground tilts, so build a compacted pad first.

A grower's version of the sum: at UF/IFAS's 0.62 gallon per square foot per inch, a 2,000 square foot packing-shed roof in a place that gets 56.1 inches a year could shed about 69,500 gallons, far more than a few totes can hold, so storage size, not supply, is the limit.

Our reading: the packing-house and truck-crop side of Florida City suggests totes that held crop-protection products, fertilizer solutions and washing water. Growers selling or buying should say whether a tote held anything labeled for chemical use, because that changes the path from resale to recycling. A packing-shed owner reusing totes for plain wash water has a different set of questions from a household collecting rain.