Does Microbial Life Survive Pump Impellers?

2007 Test With 1200 gallon (US) Brewer;

We made an attempt to run a test to record the effects on microbial life when
distributing Compost Tea (CT) through an impeller pump, irrigation lines, shrub
head sprinklers and a cheap hand operated sprayer. One objective was to grow
fungal hyphae in the CT to see how it tolerated the impeller pump and
sprinklers but we failed to do so. We did see the growth of bacterial structures
which are about the same volume as fungal hyphae (roughly speaking) so we
decided to proceed using the bacterial structures to get some estimate of how
fungal hyphae might survive the ride. See below for a similar test with fungal
hyphae.
The pump we used is an impeller irrigation pump; 2 horse power; 20 PSI; 65
gallons per minute.
Our water line is 1.25 inches reducing to 3/4 inch. The strainer baskets
on our overhead shrub head sprinklers are about 500 to 600 microns
(just guessing; may be larger). These sprinklers create a fine mist
and are great for coating leaves.
Besides the preliminary 27hr sample I looked at and recorded 4 sample types;
The video clips presented are comprised of the best of quite a number of clips
recorded.
1/ Sample from 1200 US gallon brewer; low active bacteria; very high
immobile bacterial 'biomass' (very large bacterial complexes); high
numbers & diversity flagellates click here to view video (9 MB)
2/ Sample through pump and water line: could see the effects of the
impeller pump as some of the bacterial structures were broken or
malformed but many remained intact. Flagellates were about the same;
Click here to view video(5 MB)
3/ Sample through pump, water line and shrub head sprinklers: about the
same effects as through the water line except the flagellate
activity seemed down a little. Click here to view video (4 MB)
4/ Sample taken right from brewer and sprayed through one of those hand
operated spray bottles set on mist; this, surprisingly had the most
devastating effects. The bacterial structures were mostly torn up

and many flagellates were killed. Click here to view video (6 MB)
I'm going to need to do a repeat trial but my thought is that if you have
hyphae that break up in the application process, unless they are
mashed, they will likely continue to grow in the soil if the
conditions support them. The same can probably be said for spores which are
put off by hyphae grown.

Repeat Trial: 2008

Using the Microbulator 50 rather than the 1200 gallon brewer as previously
attempted, I brewed an ACT heavily populated with fungal hyphae, utilizing our
fungal inhabited vermicompost fed with oat flour.
I have succeeded with a 10 hour brew which was very heavily populated with
fungal hyphae. I have demonstrated/observed that fungal hyphae complexes
survive intact after passing through 1/ a mesh strainer of approximately 800 to
1000 microns, 2/ a low pressure impeller pump, 3/ a sprinkler strainer basket
and 4/ a shrub head sprinkler (all one pass).
The fungal hyphae complexes averaged 3 microns in diameter ranging to 6+
microns and some which survived the pump and sprinkler spanned several
250X fields of view. I used a cheap ancient sump pump to run the test.
I think you can rest assured that a low pressure impeller pump will not
significantly damage biology in compost tea.
I have recorded my data to video via microscope/computer interface and the
video is available here for download (plays with Windows Media Player) > 6 MB