Testing your Compost Tea Applicator(s), Pumps and Sprayers
Tweet ThisTesting your Compost Tea Applicator, Pump and Sprayers is easy and can be done in a few moments.
Micro organisms can be blended and killed when tea is applied on plants or leaves by using pumps. It’s important to have the right pump and nozzles or you will kill everything you grew. There are three places where micro organisms get crushed, smashed or blended. It is in the pump head, nozzle, cavitation and streaming landing force. The pump can not be a centrifugal pump. It is also called as non-positive displacement pump. An example of this pump used in hot tubs. Use is a diaphragm pump where it does not blend up your fungi and protozoan. The nozzle needs to be checked to make sure the bacteria flying through the hose and nozzle are not making sharp turns where the shear speed destroy the organism. Cavitations occurs at the entrance of the pump. The pump pulls in tea at the input of the pump. It is possible for a pump to suck in tea so quickly the pressure in the hose and the pump chamber lowers, the water boils and pulls apart bacteria and protozoan. The solution is simple. Make sure you have a hose that is at least twice the diameter as the output hose. Last, when applying teas using a sprayer, make sure to be conscience where the tea is landing. Remember, a sprayer is taking micro organisms and flinging them through the air and landing on something. If the speed of tea is too high or you are spraying directly on a rock or tree trunk, there is a good chance the living organisms are breaking.
Choosing the right pump for applying teas, Click here
Different types of pump attachments for infusing tea directly into plant roots, Click here
Here is a quick way to check your application equipment is or is not killing your compost tea:
- Pick a bucket size that matches your pump. If you have a 1 GPM pump, use a 5 gallon bucket for this test. If you have a 10 GPM, then find something that will hold at least 10 gallons.
- Put compost tea in the bucket . If your pump is a 1 GPM, only put in 1 gallon. If it is 5 GPM, then only use 5 gallons of tea.
- Take a sample of you tea and prepare a microscope sample.
- Count the number of fungi, protozoan and bacteria in the sample that is moving and alive. Make a note of each quantity(s).
- Place the nozzle of your sprayer in the tea bucket so when the pump is running, it is pumping tea right back into the bucket.
- Let the pump run for 10 minutes.
- Stop the pump and take another sample of your pumped tea.
- Count the number of fungi, protozoan and bacteria in the sample that is moving and alive. Make a note of each quantity.
- Take the number you just counted and divide it by the number of organisms you noted before. This will give you a low number like 30%.
- Since you have ran your tea 10 times through the pump using a 1 GPM pump, you need to take the 30% and take the 10th root. It’s very easy to do . On a scientific calculator, like the one in Windows 7 or Vista, punch in 0.3. Press the x^Y and type in .1; hit equals. That number will be the percent of organism that make it through your system alive.
Example:
Microscope Bacteria Measurements:
Before 300 bacterium per microscope viewing field.
After 100 bacterium per microscope viewing field.
Divide the two -> 100/300 = 33%
Say 33% of the organism survive after going 10 times through the pump. Using your calculator type in the following:
0.33
X^Y button
0.1
“=”; equals
The resulting number is 0.895 or 90% of the organism suriive going through your pump.
You can do this measurement or fungi, bacteria and/or protozoa. You can combine the numbers together or keep them separate. It will tell you what is making it through or not.