Nursery Worker

Crops/Commodities: evergreens, trees, deciduous shrubs. This job requires a minimum of three months of prior experience working in a tree and shrub nursery handling both manual and machine tasks associated with nursery production and harvest activities. Workers must be able to perform manual as well as mechanized activities with accuracy and efficiency. Workers will be required to perform any of the following jobs, all of which are performed outside: Planting: Workers may be required to work as operators of wheel tractors pulling planters and planting wagons. Workers may be required to work on the ground planting trees that are fed through a tractor pulled planter, using shovels. Workers will be required to dig trees and evergreens with digging spades. Flowering Trees & Shrubs: Workers will be working with flowering trees and shrubs. Workers will plant, cultivate, harvest, propagate, grade, store and ship field grown horticultural plants. Harvesting field-grown crops includes digging up products and placing on pallets. Workers will take cuttings from trees and shrubs, place in containers pre-filled with dirt and transplant seedlings to prepared areas. At maturity, the plants will be dug, balled and burlapped and loaded onto trucks for shipping. Pruning: When pruning, it is vital to prune the unwanted branch while protecting the stem or trunk wood of the tree. While pruning trees, workers will receive proper tools for the particular job, i.e., saw, pruners and hand snips. The supervisor will set a standard or pattern for each job and will demonstrate and communicate this to workers. Workers will be assigned rows of trees and must prune each tree according to the predetermined standard. Workers must remove all resulting material from the trees rendered from performing pruning tasks. When pruning is complete on each tree, each worker is required to rake and scatter the resulting brush in the center of the tractor/equipment rows. Balled and burlap (B&B) tree production: Workers may be required to work as operators of skid steers with tree spade attachments or haul out tines. Workers may be required to dig with nursery spades to ball and burlap. Workers may be required to work on the ground packaging the finished root ball on a tree by stapling burlap with hog ring pliers, tying basket loops with twine, crimping baskets with pig tail crimpers or tying branches with twine. Loading and Unloading: Workers may be required to work on flat bed trailers tying B&B trees to the trailer with twine. Cultivation: Workers may be required to work as operators of wheel tractors pulling cultivators, mowers or hilling disks. General Duties: Duties performed in the field may include preparing soil, planting, pruning, cutting, deadheading, pinching, trimming to shape, spacing plants, weeding, ditching, shoveling, hoeing, hauling, potting, fertilizing with granular or liquid fertilizer, cleaning work areas, transporting plant materials in the nursery/greenhouse areas, loading and unloading plants and all other duties associated with ornamental plant production. Between harvesting, workers will be required to perform duties to prepare crops for marketing. Workers may unload and restock for storage. Workers with a valid driver's license may be required to drive company van from farm to farm. Work is to be done for long periods of time. Workers will assist in loading trucks with product weighing up to and including 60 pounds and lifting to a height of 5 feet for long periods of time. Workers should be able to work on their feet in bent positions for long periods of time. Work requires repetitive movements and extensive walking. Allergies to ragweed, goldenrod, insect spray, related chemicals, etc. may affect workers' ability to perform the job. Workers are exposed to wet weather early in the morning through the heat of the day, working in fields. Temperatures may range from 10 to 100 F.

Salary : $18