I would like to use compost tea on my garden. I don't have the means to make aerobic compost tea. If I use anaerobic compost tea as a soil drench only, will I still provide my soil a flush of beneficial microbes? Also, do you have any suggestions for making anaerobic compost tea?
I'll be the first to admit that my chief interest in composting is to make a soil conditioner and to reduce the volumes garden waste on my property, so I'm not much help on making anaerobic compost tea. But I do know plenty about environmental microbiology.
The predominant gasses in an environment control which microbes can be active in that environment. Aerobic conditions indicate that the oxygen concentration is about 18-22%.
Metabolism is the work of cells. At the end of the process of metabolism, all microbes have one electron left over. That electron has to go somewhere, and it is passed on to a chemical in gas or liquid form that lacks one electron.
Microbes are very specific about where they put that last electron - a few can use a limited range of chemicals, but many can use only one chemical. That's how the chemicals available in the environment control which microbes can do the work.
The microbes that can be active in anaerobic environments produce by products that do not support plant growth like acetone or alcohols.
I wouldn't do it.
