EDWARDS — Wheat's Greenhouse is turning to green power to stabilize prices and stay in business.
Over the summer, owner William H. Wheat plans to convert fuel-oil furnaces on six greenhouses so they can burn used cooking oil and other waste oil. By the end of June, he wants to have the blades of a windmill churning to cut down on electrical costs.
"We're going to keep on plugging away," Mr. Wheat said. "I guess with any business long term you never know, but we intend to stay for quite a while. That's our game plan for the next year."
Wheat's, a 22-year-old family business on Campbell Road, specializes in annuals, although it devotes one greenhouse to perennials and offers some vegetables for buyers who prefer one-stop shopping.
The greenhouse, which grows its own stock, opens May 1 and is usually sold out of all but perennials by the first week of June. The selling season is short but preparations for the spring rush begin in January.
"By February, half of the greenhouses are running. By the 10th of March, they're all going," Mr. Wheat said. "The heat loss is tremendous. It's two layers of poly with air in between."
The business burns through 3,000 gallons of fuel oil and 140 cords of wood annually and this year raised the price of its $1.99 six-pack plants by 15 cents. Mr. Wheat recently received a price quote of about $4 per gallon for fuel oil.
"Our breaking point was $2.50 a gallon," he said. "Fuel oil is sky-high right now, and even if it goes down, I don't think it's going to be $2.50 again."
The conversion to waste oil will cost approximately $4,000 per unit.
Mr. Wheat has picked up assurances from various restaurants in Gouverneur that he can have their waste oil. He might travel as far as Canton for additional fuel, but distances beyond that don't make for a cost-effective switch.
The business is considering solar panels and recently decided to buy all of its electricity from green sources, such as hydro, solar and wind. It is working to be carbon neutral, meaning balancing carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels with renewable energy.
"It's better for the environment," Mr. Wheat said. "I think if the economy gets worse, people will be switching to vegetable plants so they can eat what they're growing."
