Watermelon, squash and pumpkin bins for the fall harvest

Bins for a short season

Melons, squash, cantaloupes and pumpkins are dense and round, and an octagonal gaylord keeps them from pushing out the walls. Makers recommend the octagon for exactly those loads. The season is short and the date is firm: a farm that needs fifty bins on the first of September does not need them on the fifteenth.

What to put in the request

• How many bins, and on which footprint your packing line or pallet jack works
• A need-by date, since this is the one page where timing decides everything
• Whether a lid or poly liner is wanted; see lids and liners
• Your town and ZIP, so we can read the haul

Grades for produce

A bin for produce should be dry and clean inside. Grade A or B octabins from plastics and regrind docks have usually been filled with resin, not food; say whether that is acceptable for your use. Anything that held a food-contaminated or wet load is not a candidate. The grades guide sets out the five grades.

Octabin specs, from one maker's listing, are on the octagonal gaylord page. Five-wall construction is the heavy-duty choice; see five-wall.

Timing the request

Harvest bins are a calendar problem before they are a box problem. Growers and packers decide on their bin count weeks before the first pick, and the used octabins that fit are limited by what produce docks and processors have emptied. A request in late summer competes with every other grower's request; a request in spring has the whole season of empties to choose from. If your harvest is fixed, say so in the first line.

What a packing shed looks at

A shed checking bins cares about three things: whether they are clean enough for food contact, whether they stack the way the shed's forklifts expect, and whether the footprint matches the pallets the shed already owns. Say which of those matter most. A bin that is perfect on every point but one is sometimes still the right bin, and a one-line answer lets the reply say so.

After the harvest

Bins that served one season often have another in them. Growers who finish the pick can sell their empties, which is how the used market for harvest bins refills. If you are on the other side of the exchange, a request in November for next year's bins is early, but not too early. Say what you will grow and in what quantities; the more notice, the better the match.