Pot moving, soil preparation, irrigation trenching, and greenhouse logistics — the specific attachments that make Canadian nursery and horticultural operations run faster and with less manual labour.
Horticulture and nursery operations don't get discussed much in skid steer attachment guides, which tend to focus on construction and earthmoving. That's a gap worth closing. A mid-size Canadian nursery moving thousands of container plants per season, managing planting beds, handling bulk soil and compost, and running irrigation trenches has just as much use for a well-equipped skid steer as any construction contractor.
The difference is that horticulture operations have specific constraints: delicate product that can't be damaged, tight row spacing in greenhouses and growing areas, the need for precision in soil work, and often limited machine access in covered structures. The right attachments address these constraints. The wrong ones create more problems than they solve.
The big productivity challenge in container nurseries is moving heavy pots — 20-gallon, 45-gallon, 100-gallon containers — from propagation areas to growing fields, from growing fields to display areas, and from display areas to loading docks. Doing this manually, with barrel dollies or forklifts, is slow. A skid steer with the right attachment can move multiple containers at once.
The most common tool is pallet forks, used in conjunction with wooden or plastic pallets that carry four to sixteen containers each. This works well for containerized stock that's already on pallets, which is standard practice in most commercial nurseries. Fork capacity needs to match the palletized weight: a pallet with twelve 15-gallon containers of mature shrubs might weigh 400–600 kg.
Standard 1.5-metre pallet forks at 1,500 kg capacity cover most nursery pallet work. Wider fork spacing options (many forks come with moveable tine positions) allow single-tine placement between containers when pallets aren't available. Our pallet fork guide covers capacity calculations in detail.
For very large specimens — 200-gallon or larger field-dug trees and shrubs — some nurseries use a dedicated nursery boom or jib arm mounted on the skid steer's quick attach plate. These add crane-like functionality, allowing the operator to lift and position individual large specimens with a strap or chain. It's a specialty attachment, but in high-value specimen nurseries in BC and Ontario, it pays for itself quickly.
Specialty nursery attachments like the Kinshofer or AMI pot movers (designed specifically for container handling) are less common in Canada due to price and limited dealer networks, but they exist. More commonly, Canadian nurseries adapt standard attachments to their workflow rather than buying purpose-built nursery equipment.
Nursery soil preparation is more precise than construction earthmoving. You're building growing media to specific depths, incorporating amendments, and often working in raised beds with defined borders. The right attachments for this work are tillers, power rakes, and soil conditioners.
A skid steer rotary tiller — width range typically 60–84 inches for nursery-scale work — incorporates organic amendments and breaks up compacted growing areas. The tilling depth (typically 6–12 inches depending on the machine and soil) is controlled by the operator. For annual bed renovation in cut flower operations, market gardens, and nursery propagation beds, a tiller dramatically reduces the labour involved.
Tillers are standard-flow compatible on most models. A 72-inch tiller from a quality manufacturer (Bradco, HLA, FAE) runs $4,500–8,000 CAD and handles most nursery soil work without issues. The key consideration: don't till dry, compacted clay in one pass. Two passes in opposing directions at reduced depth work better and protect the machine from overloading.
Where tillers incorporate amendments to depth, soil conditioners and power rakes work the surface — breaking clods, removing debris, and creating a fine seedbed. For seed propagation areas and turf establishment in nursery display areas, these are more appropriate than full-depth tillers.
See our soil conditioner vs tiller comparison for the breakdown on which tool fits which application. The short version: tillers for deep incorporation, conditioners for surface finish.
Drip irrigation and sub-irrigation systems require trenches — typically 12–24 inches deep, 4–8 inches wide — for supply lines and manifolds. In an established nursery layout, these trenches need to follow specific paths, avoid existing plant roots, and be precise enough that the irrigation contractor can work efficiently behind the machine.
Skid steer trenching attachments (chain trenchers) are well-suited to this. A 4-inch chain trencher at 18-inch depth handles most drip irrigation mainline work. For sub-surface drainage tile installation — common in heavier soils across BC's Fraser Valley and Ontario's horticultural belt — a wider 6-inch chain at 24-inch depth is more appropriate.
Our trencher attachment guide covers chain vs rockwheel trenching options and soil type matching.
Working inside a greenhouse adds constraints that outdoor nursery work doesn't have. Ceiling height limits machine height. Narrow aisle spacing limits attachment width. Floors are often concrete or compacted aggregate that can be damaged by tracked machines, making rubber-tired skid steers the default choice for indoor work.
The attachments that make sense in greenhouse environments:
Nurseries go through enormous volumes of growing media. A mid-size operation might move 500–2,000 cubic metres of compost, bark, peat, and perlite per season. Handling this with a standard GP bucket works, but light material buckets (higher-sided, higher-capacity) cut the number of cycles and reduce operating time significantly.
For organic matter that needs to be blended, some nurseries use a cement mixer attachment on the skid steer for small-batch custom media blending. For larger volumes, a bucket loader into a mixing drum works better. Our cement mixer attachment guide covers this specialized use case.
Skid steer tillers and rotary cutters have a role in pre-season weed suppression and end-of-season cleanup. Tilling under cover crop after the growing season, mowing between rows in orchard-style nursery layouts, and managing weedy areas before cultivation are all realistic applications.
A brush cutter or flail mower attachment handles inter-row vegetation management in larger nursery plantings. For managed grass walkways between planting blocks, a simple bucket or box blade for annual re-leveling keeps paths functional after heavy use.