Job Information
Shanesville Fruit Farm Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery in Boyertown, Pennsylvania
16 Full Time Seasonal H-2A Jobs available 07/29/2024-12/17/2024.
Crops/Commodities: peaches, nectarines, pears, apples, and cherries.
General: Workers will perform any of the following duties: Orchard clean-up, building and repairing tree trellises, removal of strings and wire from trellises and other hand tasks. Care of young non-producing fruit trees, including weeding, tree trunk painting, hand fertilizing and hand clipping. Training of apple, pear, peach and nectarine trees to trellises including limb positioning, clipping and tying limbs and shoots to wire. Must be able to train trees to trellis without constant management supervision. Propping and tying of apple, pear, peach, and nectarine trees and limbs. May operate and help maintain tractors.
Planting:
Workers will prepare fields for planting by clearing cull stock, brush, debris and rocks; dig holes, plant seedlings or 'liners' by hand (including riding on the planting machine, reaching and grabbing a tree and dropping it in the hole and inserting liners in a mechanical planter); shovel and rake dirt around newly-planted trees.
Thinning:
Thinning is a manual process used to control the size and fruit quality of grown fruit. Employees will be given appropriate training by supervisors. Ability to pick up, use and safely handle a 16-foot orchard ladder weighing approximately 40 lbs. is necessary for performance of thinning tasks.
This process requires the employee to be able to appropriately remove the smallest fruit blossom, bud and/or identifiable fruit from within a cluster of other fruits. Workers will be expected to be able to identify and remove fruit that is misshapen, damaged and/or have other quality problems as directed by supervisors.
Pruning:
Pruning numerous varieties of apple, cherry, peach, nectarine and pear trees according to established company procedures based on the difference in the treatment of different varieties. Work will be performed on trees for long periods of time using a variety of pruning equipment including hand shears, hand loppers, hand saws and 16-foot ladders. Pruning and thinning may be done from the ground or ladder up to 16 feet in height or from a motorized platform. Workers may be required to selectively prune only trees of a certain size as instructed by the crew boss.
Workers are expected to have requisite pruning skills to be able to identify and remove stubs or broken branches, downward-growing branches, branches which rub against each other, shaded interior branches, dead wood and shoots/suckers with hand pruning saws and clippers, mechanized clippers and pole pruners. Occasionally workers may be required to use chain saws and other mechanized equipment in pruning activities.
Careful pruning requires knowledge of what to prune, how much to prune and fruit trees' growth habits. The primary reason for pruning fruit trees is to improve fruit quality and thus increase crop marketability and value.
Requirements:
- 3 months experience in duties listed
- Drug Screen
- Lifting requirement 60 lbs.
- Exposure to extreme temperatures
- Extensive pushing or pulling, sitting or walking
- Frequent stooping or bending over
- Repetitive movements
The full terms and conditions of the job (form ETA790a) should be reviewed and provided to qualified applicants from this website: seasonaljobs.dol.gov