Industry · Landscaping & Nurseries
The tote that becomes the planter.
Nobody gets more use out of a single tote than a nursery. It arrives holding fertilizer, spends two seasons as an irrigation reservoir, and finishes its life cut in half as a pair of raised beds under shade cloth.
The short answer
For growers, one tote does three jobs: bulk water storage between rain events, a mixing vessel for liquid feed or compost tea, and — cut down — a raised bed or wicking planter. Buy B-grade, buy opaque, and buy a spare valve.
From the yard
Cut, deburred, drainage-drilled, cage retained
Planter kit
620 gal per inch per 1,000 sq ft of roof
Rain capture
~1.7 psi from a 4 ft stand
Gravity head
B — sound, opaque preferred
Grade
That full-cascade reuse is exactly the model this company was built around, and it is why we stock cut-and-finished planter kits alongside the standard yard catalog.
Applications
What landscaping & nurseries actually does with them
Specific uses, with the details that decide whether a tote works well or badly for each one.
Irrigation reservoirs & drip feed
A tote on a 4-foot stand yields roughly 1.7 psi of head — enough for gravity drip across a short run. For anything longer, a 12V or 120V booster pump off the 2" outlet does the job.
Compost tea & liquid feed brewing
Totes are the standard 250-gallon brewer. Cut a 12" access port in the lid for the air stone and paddle, and dedicate the unit — you do not want fertilizer residue in your tea.
Rainwater capture from greenhouse roofs
A 1,000 sq ft greenhouse roof yields about 620 gallons per inch of rain. Two totes in series with a first-flush diverter captures most of a typical Central Texas storm.
Wicking beds & tote planters
A tote cut horizontally makes two beds with the cage as a built-in trellis frame. Cut vertically it makes a tall wicking planter with a water reservoir underneath. We sell both cut, deburred and drilled.
Mobile watering for install crews
New-install warranty watering runs off a tote in a truck bed. Secure it — a 275-gallon tote sloshing at 2,300 lb will move a half-ton truck.
Recommended
What we'd put on the quote
Starting points. Tell us the specifics and we'll adjust.
- Second-Life Builds
Planters, wicking beds and trellis frames, ready to place.
- Rainwater Harvesting Guide
Sizing, first-flush, overflow and Texas rebate notes.
- Water Storage Totes
Algae-resistant configurations for open-sun sites.
Compliance
What the rules expect
- Texas Property Code protects rainwater harvesting installations from most HOA prohibitions — but appearance standards can still apply.
- Texas exempts rainwater harvesting equipment from state sales tax; ask us to code the invoice correctly.
- Never use a tote that held herbicide for irrigation. Residual glyphosate and 2,4-D persist in HDPE.
Specification
Typical spec sheet
What a landscaping & nurseries order usually looks like when it leaves the yard.
| Attribute | Typical specification |
|---|---|
| Planter kit | Cut, deburred, drainage-drilled, cage retained |
| Rain capture | 620 gal per inch per 1,000 sq ft of roof |
| Gravity head | ~1.7 psi from a 4 ft stand |
| Grade | B — sound, opaque preferred |
Where the money goes wrong in this sector
The two failure modes are always the same: paying for documentation you do not need, or assuming documentation exists when it does not. In landscaping & nurseries, for growers, one tote does three jobs: bulk water storage between rain events, a mixing vessel for liquid feed or compost tea, and — cut down — a raised bed or wicking planter — that sentence is the whole shortcut.
If you are unsure which side of that line your application sits on, describe it in the form. We will tell you the cheaper option when the cheaper option is genuinely adequate, because the alternative — selling you the expensive one every time — is a business model that only works once per customer.
Landscaping & Nurseries questions
+How do I keep algae out of a tote in full sun?
+Can I bury a tote?
+Do you cut planters to order?
Other sectors
Not quite your industry?
- Agriculture & RanchingWater where the windmill isn't.
- Food & BeverageDocumented contents or it isn't food grade.
- Breweries & DistilleriesBoth sides of the brewhouse wall.
- Construction & ConcreteCheap enough to be consumable, tough enough not to be.
- Oil, Gas & EnergyThe most tote-intensive industry in the state.
- Municipal & WaterBid-friendly stock, incident-free totes.
Quick reference
Numbers worth having open in another tab
The figures that come up in almost every conversation, whichever page you arrived on.
275 gallon · 1040 L
48×40×46
- Tare
- 130 lb
- Gross, water
- 2,425 lb
- Stack full
- 2 high
- Stock
- Always in stock
330 gallon · 1250 L
48×40×53
- Tare
- 160 lb
- Gross, water
- 2,915 lb
- Stack full
- 2 high
- Stock
- Always in stock
264 gallon · 1000 L
48×40×46
- Tare
- 125 lb
- Gross, water
- 2,325 lb
- Stack full
- 2 high
- Stock
- Usually in stock
350 gallon · 1325 L
48×40×56
- Tare
- 175 lb
- Gross, water
- 3,095 lb
- Stack full
- 2 high
- Stock
- Order in
From the yard notes
Longer reading on this
32 articles written by the people who wash, grade, weld and dispatch. No marketing copy in any of them.
- Industry · May 19, 2021 · 3 minPasture Water When the Windmill Is Half a Mile AwayCattle drink 12 to 20 gallons a head a day in a Texas summer. That single number sizes the whole system.
- How-to · April 18, 2023 · 3 minS60x6 Is Not Two-Inch NPT, and That Sentence Solves Most Fitting ProblemsTwo threads that measure almost the same and will never, ever mate. Here's how to tell them apart in three seconds.
- Compliance · September 21, 2021 · 3 minReading the UN Plate on Your Cage31HA1/Y/0426/USA/M1234. Five fields, each of which tells you something you probably need.
On the yard this week
More answers
While you're here
Pulled from the full FAQ, which runs to forty-plus answers across buying, grades, food safety, sizes, selling, compliance, delivery and care.
- Where we are
- 3505 Montopolis Dr, Austin, TX 78744
- Yard hours
- Mon–Thu 7:30a–5p · Fri 7:30a–4p · Sat 8a–12p · Sun closed (Central Time)
- Coverage
- 68 Texas counties on scheduled routes, from one Austin yard.
+Are your totes NSF certified?
+Are stained totes a problem?
+What payment terms do you offer?
+Why did my tote collapse inward?
+What does 31HA1/Y mean?
Send a landscaping & nurseries request.
Application, volume and destination. You'll have a written price, a grade recommendation and a delivery date the same business day.