hey im growing outdoors in 5 gallon buckets is it mandatory that i use nutrients?

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A friend with weed, is a friend indeed!

I wouldnt say mandatory right up front if you use good soil that is real fertile from the earth or you bought then it usually has some nutes in it to begin with and some can last up to 3 months, i've grown in 5 gal buckets before and everything was fine for about the first 2 months before i had to start using nutes. I filled it up about 2/3's the way with the a sand top soil mixture and drilled a few holes in the bottom for drainage since I lived in florida at the time and daily rain was a major factor. the drainage holes are optional id say. everything went fine for me. good luck with it. btw i've had people use my method and say it sucked but upon further investigation they had more sand then dirt, and as most know sand doesnt hold water at all! so make sure you have more soil then sand, its just there to allow the water to get to the lower parts and allow the soil to remain moist longer. try it if you like.

but it makes a huge difference huh?

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A friend with weed, is a friend indeed!

i guess it depends on what you are growing in as far as your mix to begin with ,but we all get hungry and plants are no different ,just my opinion though

what does? I'm not sure what your asking the difference is so im gonna guess, that your talking about the sand, yeah for my plants at the time it helped, it made me a little more sure that the water was getting further down in the bucket instead of just being absorded into the top. If your talking about the holes in the bottom again those are optional, like i said i lived in florida at the time and we got rain almost everyday so i just wanted to make sure that it had a way out of the bucket instead of pooling up in my bucket and drowning my plants.

nutrients=food. what happens when you dont get food? sorry to be so blunt but....

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its not MANDITORY but it does help alot

if your using a soilless meduim which doesn't have nutrients it is....shit dies without food..... if you grow in soil which allready has nutrients its not MANDITORY, but the plants will only grow untill the nutrients in the soil are gone, then die. you gota have some supreme soil to get it go grow (and keep growing) throught the entire process, though it can be done.

i put fish 3' down in the soil (potasium), and grassclippings on the top (nitrogen) with potash directly in the soil, but they still NEED nutrients to get the NEEDED trace minerals (magnesium, zinc, iron, boron, copper ect).

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