Nursery Worker

Crops/Commodities: Nursery stock, trees, shrubs. Primary duties (performed the majority of workdays): Packs, labels, pulls and stores plants according to variety. Perform general maintenance of field grown plants. Performs any other duties involved in the maintenance of plant materials and nursery stock and maintenance of holding yards and shipping areas. Manual tasks related to the growing of nursery stock will include some combination of the following: Plants, cultivates and maintains in condition for shipping and resale to customers nursery stock; pots seedlings, prunes, spaces, irrigates and culls plants to ensure availability of marketable products; prepare fields for planting by clearing cull stock, brush and debris; propagate plants from cuttings; plant cuttings, seedlings or ‘liners' by hand (including riding and inserting liners in a mechanical planter); dig, load, unload or transplant bare-root nursery stock; straighten, tie, stake, prune and shear trees and shrubs (shearing conifers and evergreens must be performed with proper taper and angle of bud cut for quality); cut, pull or remove and mow weeds or grass (weeds are to be removed by the root and not at ground level); assist with irrigation; spread topsoil and mulch; transplant trees, shrubs and plants into containers; fill, lift and carry various size pots with soil and plants weighing as much as 60 pounds (plants must be handled carefully so that minimal leaves, limbs and roots are broken during transplanting process); water in nurseries and seasonal holding houses; remove plastic from seasonal holding houses in spring and cover seasonal holding houses with plastic in fall; assist with building seasonal holding houses; move irrigation equipment; spray herbicides and insecticides and apply fertilizer; hand hoe around nursery stock. Tasks related to harvest of nursery stock will include the following: taking inventory and grading plants, preparing trees and shrubs for digging by tying or wrapping as necessary; digging; drum lacing and quarter lacing; wrapping burlap or other covering around root balls and securing with twine and/or staples; crimping wire baskets; lifting, carrying and loading nursery stock; and unloading, moving or loading supplies, including wire baskets. Packing and preparing plants for storage. Plants must be handled carefully to ensure that leaves, limbs and roots are not broken during digging, handling, wrapping and/or transplanting processes. Mechanized tree spade helpers will work as part of a crew. The helper will remove the tree from the tree spade, tighten the burlap in an acceptable manner, crimp wire basket around the root ball, lace top of ball with sisal twine and crimp basket to tighten twine. Work will also include heavy mechanized field work using power equipment on the farm. By way of example and not limitation power equipment may include power shears, chain saws, high lift and fork lift, skid loader and tractors, light trucks and trailers. Workers will be expected to be able to operate agricultural equipment with or without direction. 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. Workers may be required to work during occasional showers not severe enough to stop work activities. Workers may not report for work while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The possession or use of illegal drugs or alcohol on Company property is prohibited and will be cause for termination. The vehicles provided to workers (van, SUVs, pick-up truck, etc.) are for multi-purpose use on an as-needed basis (e.g.

Salary : $14