Description
Directly supervise and coordinate nursery and greenhouse workers engaged in propagating, cultivating, maintaining, and shipping plants, ensuring quality, safety, and production goals.
- • Maintain inventory of plants by species, size, and grade; record production, losses, sales, and shipments.
- • Coordinate order pulling, tagging, quality grading, packing, and staging for shipment.
- • Coordinate loading and transportation of nursery stock, supplies, and equipment.
- • Operate or direct operation of carts, forklifts, tractors, potting machines, sprayers, and irrigation controllers.
- • Issue tools, PPE, and equipment to workers and ensure their return and proper care.
- • Requisition or purchase pots, trays, media, fertilizers, pesticides, labels, parts, and tools.
- • Inspect facilities, benches, irrigation lines, and equipment to identify maintenance needs.
- • Direct or assist with maintenance and minor repairs of irrigation systems, sprayers, heaters, and small engines.
- • Oversee construction or setup of greenhouses, hoop houses, benches, or irrigation systems.
- • Coordinate dismantling, moving, and setup of equipment or structures at new or seasonal sites.
- • Prepare and maintain timekeeping, payroll, attendance, and personnel records, including evaluations and training.
- • Confer with managers on production targets, space planning, equipment condition, and work schedules.
- • Communicate with sales and logistics on availability, crop status, and delivery schedules.
- • Monitor operations to solve problems, improve methods, reduce waste, and meet quality and regulatory standards.
- • Implement sanitation protocols for disease prevention, including tool disinfection and footbaths.
- • Calculate or monitor budgets for labor, crop inputs, and facility maintenance.
- • Assign tasks such as potting, transplanting, pruning, staking, spacing, weeding, and sanitation.
- • Train workers in propagation methods including seeding, cuttings, grafting, and division.
- • Train workers in IPM, chemical handling, equipment use, and safety procedures.
- • Monitor crews to ensure safety and regulatory compliance; coach, warn, or discipline as needed.
- • Scout crops for pests, diseases, nutrient issues, or irrigation problems and implement corrective actions.
- • Inspect nursery stock, beds, and greenhouses to determine needs for watering, fertilizing, pest control, or shipping readiness.
- • Plan and adjust irrigation and fertigation schedules based on crop stage, weather, and substrate moisture.
- • Monitor and adjust environmental controls such as vents, heaters, fans, shade, and humidity.
- • Schedule work crews, equipment, and vehicles across growing, maintenance, and shipping areas.
- • Plan work schedules according to labor and equipment availability and crop timelines.
- • Read production plans, inventory records, and customer orders to set daily and weekly priorities.
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
