Through this immersive program, participants will gain an understanding of the nursery grower’s process, technologies, and methods as they nurture shade trees from slip to sale. The program will include live demos of real equipment and industry techniques including a tree spade, field planter, irrigation and staging, B&B wrapping and tying, and pruning. Attending this event will earn participants 1.5 NJUCF Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
Participants will be split into small groups and walk between 5 stations devoted to a specific stage of the nursery stock growing process. At each station, small teams of instructors will spend 15 minutes discussing and conducting demonstrations.
The stations are as follows:
Production: Covers years 1-5 in nursery care, including the monitoring, training, and pruning of nursery trees.
Field Planting: Demonstrates how fields are prepared, tilled, and spaced for planting, featuring a mechanical planter demonstration.
Digging: Includes a demonstration of a tree spade and explains how the ball is removed from the field ground to be wrapped and tied as a B&B product.
Staging: Includes a walk through the lot where trees are held, how to identify a quality product when tagging trees, and how tagged trees are prepared for transportation.
Installation & Establishment: Station lecturers will discuss what happens after a shade tree reaches its salable caliper and leaves the lot. Also demonstrates proper planting and care of young trees for successful establishment.
A group closing summary and optional, additional tour of Cerbo’s growing fields will provide the audience with a unique opportunity to explore this usually ‘behind-the-scenes’ stage of a town shade tree’s life cycle.
This event is made possible through a partnership between Cerbo's Nursery and the New Jersey Shade Tree Federation.