The microbe content of each type of tea will be different.
Tea can be made in two very different ways; aerobically and anaerobically. The term aerobic means that the tea is made in the presence of oxygen; you usually bubble air through the tea as it is brewing (see picture above). When tea is made anaerobically, it is made without added oxygen. You simply let the smelly sludge sit in a pail. The method used to make the tea is very important because microbes tend to favor one or other of these living conditions. They either like living with oxygen present or they prefer less oxygen. So the method you use to create the tea is very important to determine the type of microbes in the tea.
Aerobic soil bacteria inhabit soils that contain a lot of air; the light fluffy type of soil we all know to be good for plants. Anaerobic soil bacteria tend to live in wet, compacted clay type soils where there is little oxygen present – not the kind of soils we want. So why is it that many recipes for compost tea use the anaerobic method? That makes no sense and I can’t explain it.
There is also something called manure tea which is the same as compost tea except it is made from manure.
Teaming with Microbes, a Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web, is a fairly popular book in the gardening community and I thought it was time to do a review. This book is written by Jeff Lowenfels, a garden writer and attorney, and Wyne Lewis a lifelong gardener. Both gardeners clearly follow the teachings of Dr. Ingham and her soil food web. They have adopted her methodologies and present the ideas in this book.
The concentration of the compost tea can be maintained by calculating the dilution factor with water during preparation and application to crops .Addition of higher quantity of water will reduce concentration and the level of concentration may affect osmotic regulations of soil microbes which can affect their activities
Compost tea contains not only all the soluble nutrients extracted from the compost, but also contains all the species of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and nematodes that are present in the compost. Compost tea can be stored for up to four to six days in a sealed, light proof container. If you need to store it longer, you will have to provide aeration with a bubbler stone or aquarium pump. Take your compost inoculant and add some humic acid or fish emulsion to it. Put it into a shallow tray and mix it up well. Then let it sit for two to three days. This encourages fresh microorganism growth in the tea. Compost tea is a living solution. It is a process that involves growing soil micro-organisms, or microbes, found in healthy soil and compost by aerating water in the presence of organic microbe foods. All of these components play key roles in creating optimal conditions for aerobic microorganisms to grow and replicate. Put mature compost in the bag and place the bag in the bucket. Initially stir or gently massage the contents of the bag. Let sit and aerate for 1 hour to 3 days. The longer the extraction period the great the potential for nutrients and microbes to be released into the water.