Nursery Growing Manager – Trees & Shrubs

Metrolina Greenhouses; South Carolina; On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Metrolina Greenhouses in York, SC seeks a Nursery Growing Manager – Trees & Shrubs to lead the propagation and finishing of woody ornamentals. This role supervises Assistant Growers, optimizes cultural practices, and maintains strict plant health, disease prevention, and safety standards.

The ideal candidate has extensive hands-on experience with tree and shrub propagation, grafting, girding of stock, and production scheduling, with a strong emphasis on quality and efficiency.

Qualifications

• Minimum five years of commercial experience in tree and shrub propagation, grafting, and finish growing.
• Extensive knowledge of woody ornamental diseases and practical experience with prevention and treatment.
• Ability to create and maintain detailed production schedules from propagation through finished-crop shipment.

Responsibilities

• Oversee crop culture and overall plant health for trees and shrubs.
• Supervise Assistant Growers and ensure sound cultural and production practices.
• Monitor irrigation and fertilization systems, EC and pH, and adjust programs accordingly.
• Lead propagation methods including vegetative cuttings, seed, division, grafting, and budding.
• Manage stock production, indexing, and mother-stock programs for cultivar identity and vigor.
• Develop propagation-to-finish schedules and coordinate harvest, shipping readiness, and inventory.
• Ensure compliance with IPM, disease management, and PGR programs; implement trials as assigned.

Skills

Tree & shrub propagation

Grafting & budding

Propagation scheduling

Plant health management

Disease knowledge (woody ornamentals)

Education

BS in Horticulture / Plant Science / Nursery Management or related field

Tools

Microsoft 365 (Outlook/Teams/Word/Excel/PowerPoint)

Job description

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Nursery Growing Manager – Trees & Shrubs

Full Time MGH Salary York Salary, York, SC, US

2 days ago Requisition ID: 3171

Position Summary

A Manager - Grower, Trees & Shrubs is responsible for ensuring woody ornamental crops are produced to the highest quality standards and predetermined specifications. The position provides direct supervision to Assistant Growers, establishes sound cultural and production practices, and maintains a safe environment for the growing staff and general workforce. The position requires advanced expertise in tree and shrub propagation, grafting, stock-plant management, production scheduling, finishing, plant health, and disease prevention. The ability to prioritize, solve problems, receive constructive feedback, and manage with an ethical demeanor are essential traits for this position.

Key Responsibilities

• Crop Culture / Overall Plant Health and Knowledge
• Irrigation and Fertilization: Knows and understands irrigation and fertilization systems used for trees, shrubs, liners, containers, and propagation crops to achieve accurate applications within defined parameters.
• Monitors and reports EC and pH daily and adjusts programs based on crop stage, substrate, container size, weather, and water quality.
• Mixes and applies correct fertilizer rates in ppm and verifies injector and application accuracy.
• Recognizes crop requirements as related to environmental influences, rooting stage, dormancy, hardening, overwintering, and finishing targets.
• Propagation: Leads and executes propagation of trees and shrubs through vegetative cuttings, seed, division, grafting, budding, and other approved methods.
• Maintains a minimum of five years of hands-on commercial experience in woody ornamental propagation, grafting, and finish growing.
• Harvesting and Cutting Management: Establishes cutting-harvest standards for maturity, time of day, hydration, sanitation, handling, storage, sticking windows, and traceability.
• Stock Production and Indexing: Manages indexed stock blocks and mother-stock production for cultivar identity, uniformity, sanitation, vigor, yield, and freedom from regulated or production-limiting pests and pathogens.
• Scheduling: Develops and maintains detailed propagation-to-finish schedules, including stock availability, cutting harvests, sticking, callusing, rooting, transplanting, spacing, pruning, staking, shifting, overwintering, finishing, and ship readiness.
• Harvest and Inventory Coordination: Forecasts rooted-liner and finished-crop availability and communicates shortages, delays, substitutions, and excesses to planning and operations.
• IPM-Integrated Pest Management: Understands and implements available biological, cultural, physical, and chemical resources to maintain pest populations at acceptable thresholds.
• Disease Management: Demonstrates extensive knowledge of woody ornamental diseases, including root and crown rots, vascular diseases, foliar blights, cankers, bacterial diseases, viruses, and propagation-related pathogens; initiates scouting, sampling, sanitation, containment, treatment, and escalation protocols.
• PGR-Plant Growth Regulators: Recognizes and implements PGR programs by considering chemical choice, crop cycle, plant physiology, application timing, technique, and treated/untreated controls.
• Trials
• Follows trial guidelines and maintains proper controls.
• Provides complete trial upkeep and documentation through a written hypothesis, protocol, results, conclusion, and production recommendation.
• Creates photo documentation for trial presentations and maintains accurate cultivar, treatment, and timing identification.
• Conducts propagation, graft compatibility, disease-management, substrate, nutrition, overwintering, and finish-timing trials as assigned.
• Stays within preset production and ship-week parameters.
• Updates woody-crop schedules continuously based on actual rooting, growth, dormancy, weather, labor, and inventory conditions.
• Recognizes appropriate growth and developmental milestones within established schedules.
• Builds contingency plans for slow rooting, graft failure, stock shortages, disease events, weather delays, and overwintering losses.
• Advanced Understanding of Plant Physiology
• Applies knowledge of juvenility, dormancy, chilling, photoperiod, cold hardiness, apical dominance, root-to-shoot balance, carbohydrate reserves, and seasonal growth patterns.
• Understands cultivar-specific responses to propagation environment, pruning, nutrition, irrigation, spacing, overwintering, and finishing practices.
• Personnel
• Teaches and trains Assistant Growers according to their job descriptions.
• Trains teams on cutting harvest, sticking, grafting, sanitation, stock indexing, scouting, recordkeeping, and quality standards.
• Maintains proactive preparedness and manages respectfully in accordance with company policy.
• Resolves conflicts consistently and communicates issues to the Head Grower/Director.
• Creates and maintains a culture of safety.
• Records and Traceability
• Maintains accurate propagation, grafting, stock-block, indexing, pesticide, fertilizer, trial, loss, and crop-schedule records.
• Ensures cultivar identity and lot traceability from mother stock or scion/rootstock source through finished crop.
• Reviews production data to improve rooting percentage, graft take, crop uniformity, shrink, labor efficiency, and on-time readiness.
• Recognizes electrical and mechanical issues and reports them immediately.
• Maintains a list of maintenance needs.
• Maintains thorough working knowledge of greenhouse, nursery, propagation, irrigation, mist, boom, environmental-control, potting, and material-handling machinery and processes.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science (BS) in Horticulture, Plant Science, Nursery Management, or a related field preferred, plus a minimum of five years of commercial experience in tree and shrub propagation, grafting, and finish growing; OR an equivalent combination of education and directly related commercial nursery experience.
• A minimum of five years of hands-on experience with woody ornamental scheduling, cutting harvest, stock-plant production, indexed stock management, liner production, and finished tree and shrub crops.
• Extensive knowledge of woody ornamental diseases and practical experience with disease recognition, sampling, sanitation, prevention, containment, and treatment programs.
• Demonstrated proficiency in grafting and budding techniques, scion and rootstock management, graft compatibility, aftercare, and evaluation of graft take.
• Ability to create and maintain detailed production schedules from propagation through finished-crop shipment.
• Flexible hours: weekend, holiday, and overtime hours may be required.
• Basic Microsoft 365 working knowledge, including Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Willingness to obtain and maintain a North Carolina pesticide applicator license within the company-established timeframe.
• Communication and interpersonal skills in reading, writing, and speaking sufficient to interact effectively with a diverse workforce.

Job Setting & Physical Demands

This position is primarily performed in greenhouse, propagation, nursery, stock-block, outdoor production, and field environments, but may require work between locations and within an indoor office environment for administrative duties, including the use of computers and standard office equipment. Fluency to read, write, and understand the English language is required. The employee must be able to work in outdoor and greenhouse conditions that may include heat, cold, rain, wind, humidity, dust, pollen, allergens, mud, and uneven surfaces.

The position requires the long-term ability to stand, walk, sit, squat, stoop, bend, kneel, reach, climb, and twist regularly to fulfill essential duties. The employee must be able to use fine motor skills and hand strength for tasks such as cutting preparation, sticking, tying, grafting, budding, pinching, pruning, squeezing, and pulling. The employee must be able to lift up to 35 pounds repetitively for a full shift without assistance. The employee must have the ability to certify on and operate machinery necessary within the department and across the facility, including equipment used in nursery and woody-crop production. The employee must be able to use chemicals required within the Horticulture department as assigned and follow all applicable labels, personal protective equipment requirements, and safety protocols.

The employee must be flexible to work around business needs and seasonal production requirements.