SAKONNET AREA — Add greenhouse operators to the wide range of individuals and businesses hit hard by soaring fuel costs. At least one local grower has been forced to close several of his greenhouses rather than pay the frightful heating bills he faced this winter. And others say heating costs have cut deep into profits and will force them to hike the price of their plants.
Richard Peckham runs Peckham's Greenhouse at West Main Road and Peckham Road in Little Compton. In February, Mr. Peckham walked a reporter through the main greenhouse on his property. It was packed with a wide variety of plants and flowers in preparation for spring. Every inch of each table was filled and there was little room for customers to move around.
Even though his need for planting space was evident, Mr. Peckham has had to close down one third of his greenhouses, 14 of them, due to the high cost of heating oil.
It costs between $1,000 and $1,200 per week to heat the main greenhouse, Mr. Peckham said, a number that is on the way up.
The only saving grace, he said, is that the winter months are slower months. He usually closes about six greenhouses in the winter, but the spike in oil prices forced him to close down many more this winter. As a result, he had to plant some plants later in the season than he would have preferred and he did not carry as many tropical plants during the winter months as he has in previous years.
"There's just no room," he said. "We have a minimum selling space now. We had to think of the cost of greenhouses virsus what plants we can sell."
The rise in gas and oil prices is affecting other farms and nurseries around the area.
Rick Chase of Chase Farm in Portsmouth said his company, a major supplier of flowers in this region, is being squeezed hard.
"We treat oil as just another cost in the daily business of things," Mr. Chase said. "It is a very painful time for us."
While Mr. Chase said the increase in gas and oil prices has had no affect on the actual sales of his products, he said it has disrupted the timing of his operation.
In an effort to save money on oil, he has been forced to open about half his greenhouses a week or two later than in previous years. As a result, the flowers won't reach full bloom as early as they should to meet the pent-up demand that spring brings.
Luckily, January and February are usually slow months for Chase Farm, he said, but he is certainly feeling the affects in other ways.
"We had to change the timing of things," he said. "Push crops back."
Mr. Peckham opted to purchase some plants in plug form from New Jersey where it costs less to heat a greenhouse. He bought a number of plants at six weeks old, as opposed to planting them as seedlings, in order to save time and money for himself and the customer in the long run.
He said it would have been more expensive to house them as seedlings, than to purchase them and start the process six weeks later.
On a positive note, Mr. Peckham said he was able to clean up and rebuild some of the greenhouses he closed during the winter, to get them ready for spring.
When the warmer weather rolls around, he relies on the sun to regulate the temperature through out the day.
"When the sun's out, these things are heat catchers," he said. "Things are looking up."
By Kim Centazzo
kcentazzo@eastbaynewspapers.com