By BRUCE SCHWARTZ | Contributing Writer
I have an interesting story to tell about a lifelong fellow Palisadian who is one of the smartest soil scientists and chemists I have ever met.
I ran across him in the San Joaquin Valley in the early 1990s. Agricultural consultants in the fertilizer business got around and were always in competition to be in the know to clients in the pre-internet days. There he was in the Crop Protection Services office, a large fertilizer company.
It was not until 20-something years later that I met him here in the Palisades in a coffee group. I did not realize he was the person I had met so many years ago.
After talking to other Palisades folk who grew up with him, it turned out that his family owned a chemical company and he had a line of fertilizer produced that he developed. As I started associating with him, I realized he was the same fellow that I met all those years ago.
His family was in the chemical business for many years. His name is John Atwill. He grew up in the Riviera.
His product line of plant nutrients, made in Los Angeles, are some of the finest products on the market—both for commercial and for consumer use. He has spent decades using the best practices of science and practical application in the field to develop and prove his products.
I had coffee with Atwill recently and he showed me the catalog of his products for the consumer (growmore.com). Their soluble fertilizer product line that he has developed over the years is really impressive.
Atwill and I thought about how fun and interesting it would be to work with the Palisades community and develop an advisory to residents who have questions about fertilizer for plants and gardens that could be helpful to the local gardening community.
What we would like to do is to help residents who are interested set up replications of treated and not treated applications of the products on different flowers and vegetables so that they can see the difference with their own eyes.
“Seeing is believing” really applies when working with fertilizer to see whether it is working or not by visual inspection. Seeing results in this way is rewarding.
This is what Atwill and I did for years, demonstrating to farmers whether a product worked or not on crops. Replicating test plots on large fields, treated and untreated, to see if it made a visual response and yield response, then collecting data.
I can tell you I had hundreds of test plots at USDA Agricultural field stations in the San Joaquin Valley, as well as grower clients, testing products on crops like cotton, carrots, potatoes, grapes and many others.
When it comes to prepping soil for this year’s vegetable garden, use the Lilly Miller Triple 16 along with composted chicken manure. Triple 16 and compost are a good pre-plant fertilizer.
With our fertilizer program, we are going to educate Palisadians on plant nutrition and have fun doing it.
Bruce Schwartz is a 24-year resident of the Palisades Highlands. He was an agricultural consultant for 20 years, specializing in soil nutrition for crops grown in the Central Valley. He was named Pacific Palisades’ Citizen of the Year in 2017 and a Golden Sparkplug award winner in 2013 and is a member of several community organizations. To reach Schwartz, call 310-779-1773 or email bruceschwartz@rodeore.com.
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