Growing Grounds

Acreage: Our nursery totals 700 acres with approximately 320 acres presently in production of containerized nursery stock. Access roads throughout the nursery total 35 miles.

Inventory: Currently Carolina Nurseries, Inc. has in excess of 11,000,000 pieces of nursery stock on the ground ranging in size from small seedlings to 15 gallon container trees.

Shipping: We have an 8 acre shipping dock facility capable of loading 18 semi loads of plant material at a time. In 2005 over 1,500 tractor trailers were loaded from this facility.

Irrigation: Total production of containers is grown on rock with underground drainage to catch our runoff enabling us to recycle our irrigation water. Our main sources of water are our lake reservoirs totaling approximately 125 acres. Our irrigation is powered by several pumps totaling 1300 horsepower enabling us to water 35% of the nursery stock at any one time.

Shade Area: We have five saran houses providing approximately 35 acres of shade covered with 50% shade and approximately 541,000 square feet of saran covered Quonset hut houses. Total heated greenhouse space equals 2 acres.

Insect/Disease Program: We have a twelve month preventative disease and insect program. To accomplish this, plants in all sections of the nursery are inspected on a weekly schedule. Varieties prone to disease are sprayed on a regular basis, others on an “as needed” basis. A number of cultural factors influence susceptibility to disease. Our goal is to grow tough plants under optimum conditions. The soil mix has been carefully researched to provide proper nutrient holding capacity, aeration and moisture retention.

Employment: Currently employed at Carolina are 50 salary employees and 325 hourly employees. During peak seasons head count will exceed 400 people.