Fungi don't necessarily need plant roots to live; only certain mycorrhizal varieties (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in paricular) that become entirely dependent on plant roots for carbohydrates and thus sustenance. Plenty of other fungi are strictly saprophytic: they decay organic matter for carbon. Some fungi can even do either, and the presence is still of benefit to the plant (not to mention endophytes). There may be from hundreds to thousands of species of fungi in good compost/humus and you think its all about the bacteria?
Myco largely wont function or proliferate in teas; that is correct. If you add spores or propagules to a regular tea brew it is likely that they'll be destroyed. But if you think you can't get a tea dominated by fungi or that it has no benefit you're mistaken. You just have to activate the fungi well in advance of the brew. Some powdered oatmeal in the compost, moistened and let to sit for a few days at a high temp will allow for the fungi to dominate the substrate. By then it will be over-taken by mycelium and ready to go into a brew.
This I find particularly interesting...
And no the tea doesn't feed the fuckin plant, yes it does feed the bacteria and such, and the bacteria eat shit in your amended soil which makes it possible for the roots to uptake it.
Just think the roots are your kids, the grocery store is your tea, and you are bacteria. The grocery store doesn't feed your kids, you go there, get what you need, and then feed your kids.
And without the grocery store they would probably starve, huh? Really though that isn't even logical, just doesn't make sense as obviously you fail to realize a couple things (or else you're just narrow minded). Not sure I can explain this to you very well but here goes. The tea is the inoculant and whatever ingredients you put into it. So if all you do is use compost or castings and molasses (which is fine) then you have a tea which is just that: a strictly simple compost tea, but it still contains all of the nutrients (potassium, minerals) that were put into it even though those things may be largely locked up in the bodies of micro-organisms it can be released in plant available form at any time.
You may however brew a tea with guano and kelp meal (which provides complex carbohydrates for fungi) in addition to the humus and molasses, which will certainly result in a more nutritional end product (where else would those nutrients go?). Get a TDS meter and check the finished brew. It will probably be well over 800 because there are dissolved solids in it (obviously). Of course they 'feed' indirectly as well by introducing high populations of beneficial microbes to the plant; but it isn't just limited to soil application (foliage, too) and so it isn't
just because the microbes break down organic matter for nutrient availability. Their very life processes (and not just those of bacteria) indeed result in plant available nutrients (among other benefits), and the plant attracts them into the rhizosphere by producing exudates because
it knows this. They do not
just "eat shit in my amended soil which makes it possible for my roots to uptake it"... and what do you suppose that even means?
Plant available nutrients are being cycled in the compost tea, and the compost tea further helps cycle the nutrients in the soil (as well as add nutrients). I say 'cycle' because
all the carbon,
all of the nitrogen, phosphate and other vital plant nutrients can't be locked up in the bacterial biomass all of the time. And it isn't; with other organisms present, those nutrients are being mineralized (made plant available) and probably re-assimilated all of the time. A big part of what the microbes do is keep the nutrients locked up in the rhizosphere, but largely only temporarily.