Nursery Worker

Job description

Crops/Commodities:
annuals and perennials.
This job requires a minimum of three months of prior experience working in a nursery handling both manual and machine tasks associated with nursery production and harvest activities. Plants, cultivates, and maintains nursery stock in condition for shipping and resale to customers. Pots seedlings, prunes, spaces, irrigates, and culls plants to ensure availability of marketable products. . Work on production line. Grade, size, sort, and pack product. Bunch/bundle product pursuant to supervisor instructions. Fill bins/trays and other containers with product, level bins, and prepare product for shipment to market or storage. Loads/unloads truck and wagons and carts. Workers will perform work including but not limited to planting, transplanting, and watering in nurseries and seasonal holding houses. Count and inventory plants. Propagate plants from cuttings. Remove plastic from seasonal holding houses in spring and cover seasonal holding houses with plastic in fall. Assist with building seasonal holding houses. 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. Performs any other duties involved in the maintenance of plant materials and nursery stock and maintenance of holding yards and shipping areas. Workers may be required to spray stock with herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, if certified.

Mow, cut, and weed fields. Perform ditching, shoveling, hoeing, hauling, ground preparation, and other manual tasks. Bending, stooping and kneeling required. Use hand tools including but not limited to hoes, shovels, shears, clippers, loppers, and saws. Lift, carry, and load/unload products or supplies. Use power equipment including but not limited to: tractors, planters, mowers, sprayers, power shears, chain saws, high lifts, fork lifts, skid loaders. Must operate agricultural equipment safely, with or without direction. Install/maintain irrigation systems and water lines. Move and install irrigation pipes and equipment. Apply pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other crop protectants. Mix and apply fertilizers, plant growth chemicals, conditioners, and other plant related treatments at the correct times depending on plant type, growth, climate and crop conditions. Clear debris from field and clean/maintain farm buildings, structures, equipment, and work areas. Assist with farm building/field maintenance and repairs. Build/repair fences.

Prepare fields/soil for planting. Plant, cultivate and maintain nursery plants, including perennials, bedding plants, vegetable plants and hanging baskets in condition for shipping and sale to customers. Pot seedlings. Attach hangers to baskets and hang throughout seasonal holding houses. Move containerized plants using rolling carts. Must understand nursery quality control standards and have working knowledge of production procedures. Must harvest crops according to specific standards. Must select and harvest crops pursuant to customer needs. Products must be handled carefully to prevent damage.

Workers may assist in handling product weighing up to 60 pounds and lifting to a height of 5 feet. Workers must work on their feet in bent positions for long periods of time. Work requires repetitive movements and extensive walking. Work required in fields when plants are wet with dew and rain, and may be required during light rain, snow, moderate winds, direct sun, high humidity and extreme temperatures. Temperatures in fields during working hours can range from 10 to over 100 degrees F. Workers may be required to work during occasional showers not severe enough to stop field operations. Allergies to ragweed, goldenrod, honey bees, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, or related chemicals may affect a worker's ability to perform the job.

Special Requirements

This job requires a minimum of three months of prior experience working in a nursery handling both manual and machine tasks associated with nursery production and harvest activities. Saturday work required. Employer-paid post-hire drug testing is required upon reasonable suspicion of use and after a worker has an accident at work. Must be able to lift/carry 60 lbs.