You'd want to use compost tea fast, before the carnage starts.
Compost = nutrients in bulk. But how does this bulk nutrient become available for the plant?
Bacteria break down the bulk into plant-available nutrient bites, if you will. Like teeny fish with a little bit of plant food in its belly.
The bacteria store the nutrients within them. At this point their nutrient payload is NOT available to the plant yet, since it's stored within the bacteria.
The bacteria has to die to release the payload.
How does the bacteria die? The protozoa eat the bacteria, thereby finally releasing the little nutrient payload the bacteria has been carrying, since protozoa have short lives.
So what's happening in a brewer?
We mix Compost, bacteria and protozoa. These are already in the compost.
Start the brewer to increase the number of both bacteria and protozoa. The brew time drastically increases the number of both bacteria and protozoa. During the brewing, the bacteria fatten up, but the vortex action keeps the predator (protozoa) away from the prey (the bacteria with the nutrient payload).
The brewer is essentially growing (amplifying) both bacteria and protozoa, but the swirling doesn't allow the carnage.
When you add this mix to the soil, the vortex stops, and the protozoa can now feast on the bacteria, releasing their payload, and the payload is now available for plant use, or re-storage in the humus already in the soil.
This is in contrast to an initial soil inoculation of Lacto-B. Lacto B (the bacteria) are digesters and are great to start of a soil. That's what I start a soil with.
Again my problem with compost brewing is that there's not a thing that your bringing to the table that's new. Every element is already in the compost, and if you simply add plain compost to the soil the exact same thing will happen, albeit more slowly. Compost tea is simply a fast way to dump nutrients into the soil... but those nutrients were already in the soil, or could be by top-dressing with that same fist-full of compost you wanted to start in the brewer.
The seed teas, comfrey teas, etc are completely different, in that they are generally bringing something new to the plant, so that is of interest to me.
