Run the crop inside a glass building: light, water, feed and pests, twelve months a year.
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The median pay is about $45,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $35,000 at the lower end to about $70,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
Up to 3 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
From nothing up to about $44,300, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$45,000
Lower end
$35,000
Upper end
$70,000
Job Bank's closest page covers greenhouse managers, with a national median of $21.80 an hour, about $45,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The low and high are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group, from $17.00 to $33.54 an hour.
$19.50 an hour
Job Bank's median for greenhouse labourers, about $40,600 a year
Most people start here: planting, pruning, trellising and harvesting. Ontario's median for the job is $20.50 and Quebec's $20.00 (2023 to 2024).
$23.25 an hour
Ontario's median for greenhouse managers, about $48,000 a year
Ontario also has the widest range, up to $43.11 an hour. Quebec's median is $22.45 and British Columbia's $20.00. The top jobs go to head growers, who set the climate, feed and watering plan for hectares of plants.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $44,300
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
You can start as a greenhouse worker with no schooling and be paid from your first day, so the low end is genuinely nothing. The high end is a four year horticulture or plant science degree at $11,000 a year plus a provincial pesticide applicator certificate, which is a course and exam costing a few hundred dollars. A two year horticulture diploma at $4,000 to $7,000 a year is the middle route. Plenty of head growers hold a diploma or no credential at all and got there on a decade of crops behind them, which makes this one of the cheapest ways into science based work.
This is one of the cheapest ways into a science-based career. Many head growers have a diploma or no formal credential at all, just a decade of crops behind them.
Year-round work
Unlike field farming, greenhouses run through the winter, so the job is not seasonal.
Indoor work
Warm and dry, though humid and hot in summer.
Promotion from the floor
Good workers can move up to grower roles.
Produce to take home
A small perk, but a real one.
Housing on some sites
Large operations in rural areas sometimes provide accommodation.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Start on the floor, learn the crop, take courses that let you make decisions.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Biology and chemistry help. A summer job at a greenhouse or garden centre helps more.
Greenhouse worker
1 to 3 years
Planting, pruning, pollination, harvesting and packing. You learn what a healthy crop looks and smells like.
Horticulture diploma (optional)
2 years
Two years at a college such as Niagara or St. Clair in Ontario, or Kwantlen in BC (British Columbia), covers plant science, greenhouse climate and pest management.
Grower or section lead
3 to 6 years in
You take responsibility for a block of the greenhouse: irrigation, feed recipe, pest scouting and yield.
Head grower
8 years or more
Climate strategy for the whole site, crop planning with the sales team and managing the growing staff.
Biology
Plant growth, pollination and disease.
Chemistry
Nutrient solutions are chemistry you mix every day.
Math
Feed rates, yields per square metre and climate data.
Computer courses
Modern greenhouses are run through climate control software.
Shop
Irrigation lines, pumps and fans break constantly.
Anyone can be called a grower. What is controlled is what you spray. Ontario requires training and certification to buy or use many pesticides, including a specific farmer certification route for people applying products on their own operation, and every province has an equivalent. Food safety programs that buyers demand also set rules on records, water testing and worker hygiene. Break those and the retailer stops buying, which matters more than any licence.
Ontario
Greenhouse Technician diplomas at Niagara College, which runs what it calls Ontario's largest teaching greenhouse, and at St. Clair College, with placements in Essex County greenhouses. Fanshawe College has a Horticulture Technician diploma and the University of Guelph a Plant Science degree.
British Columbia
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, with a Horticulture Technology diploma and a greenhouse production program.
Quebec offers a vocational diploma for greenhouse and crop work, and a 3 year college program for people who want to run the crop.
Secondary IV or V
High school
The DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) takes a high school diploma, or age 16 with certain secondary credits. The college program asks for no special courses beyond a diploma.
DEP in Horticultural Production (5348)
1,200 hours at a vocational centre, covering greenhouse and field crops from planting to harvest. Offered in regions including Montérégie, Laurentides, Estrie and Outaouais.
Or the horticultural production DEC (153.F0)
3 years
The Agri-environmental Horticultural Production Technology DEC (Diploma of College Studies) includes running a crop in a greenhouse. At ITAQ (Quebec agri-food technology institute) in Saint-Hyacinthe and La Pocatière, Lionel-Groulx and Joliette.
Pesticide certificate
Before you spray
Applying pesticides in a greenhouse needs a Quebec certificate in the category for buildings used for horticulture. You pass an online exam, and the certificate lasts 5 years.
Start on the crop
After training
Inforoute FPT (Quebec's vocational and technical training site) lists an average wage of $18.50 an hour for nursery and greenhouse workers, the job this diploma leads to.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Pesticide applicator certificate
Provincial course and exam. Needed before you can apply most crop protection products.
Integrated pest management
Releasing predator insects instead of spraying. A specialist skill that growers value.
Climate computer training
Learning a system such as Priva or Hoogendoorn is what turns a worker into a grower.
Hydroponics and irrigation
Mixing and managing nutrient solutions for crops grown without soil.
Cannabis production
A licensed branch of greenhouse growing with extra security and record keeping rules.
Forklift ticket
Cheap, one day, and useful on every site.
Basic mechanical skills
Pumps, fans, boilers and irrigation lines.
A second language
Many greenhouse crews include seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean, and Spanish is genuinely useful.
Data skills
Growers track yield, light and climate data weekly and argue about it with spreadsheets.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You walk the crop first thing, looking at the top of the plants, the fruit set and the leaves for early signs of pests or disease. Then you check the climate computer and overnight data: temperature, humidity, light, irrigation and drainage. You adjust the feed recipe and set points, meet the crop staff about what needs pruning or picking, scout for pests and release beneficial insects. Afternoons are packing schedules, orders and fixing things that broke.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers says Ontario is North America's largest producer of greenhouse produce. In 2024 Ontario grew 72% of Canada's greenhouse vegetables.
Canada exported about $1.95 billion of greenhouse vegetables in 2024, and 99.7% of it went to the United States.
Cucumbers were 35% of Canada's greenhouse vegetable sales in 2024, just ahead of tomatoes at 34%. Peppers were 23%.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Farming, forestry and fishing first, then the rest of the field. See every career in science and environment.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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