How to Grow Pot in a 5-Gallon Bucket
Let’s face it, buying everything to get started growing weed can really get expensive. If you can find a way to save a few dollars, that means more money in your pocket for buying seeds and fertilizers. An easy way to save a few dollars is to use 5-gallon buckets instead of buying fabric or air pots for your weed.
Pot can be grown in a 5-gallon bucket, barring you prepare the bucket properly for the grow. Make sure to drill holes throughout the bucket to allow excess water to drain out and air to have more access to the soil. 100% soil is not recommended in this setup so make sure to cut the soil with perlite or use mostly coco as your grow medium.
There is more to consider than that but just that information alone can give you great success growing pot in a 5-gallon bucket. In a plastic bucket, you really need to keep a close eye on the moisture level as too much water can drown your plant. You could have too many nutrients building up from fertilizing which can eventually kill your plant, this is called nutrient burn.
In this article, we’ll talk about these things and a couple more to help you save a few dollars allowing you to use that Home Depot 5-gallon bucket you have sitting in your garage.
How Do You Grow Pot in a 5-Gallon Bucket?
You grow it the same way you would in any other container, but you need to make sure the bucket has more than enough holes drilled in the sides and bottoms. When you water your plants, you want to ensure any excess water flows or drips out of the container. This will allow the water to flow through and evaporate from the bucket. It also allows air to get at the roots providing oxygen.
I highly recommend you mix approximately 25% or more of perlite to the soil. This will help the water flow throw much easier. If you’re using coco, you don’t need to mix it with anything. I recommend this product if you can afford it.
Other than the holes in the bucket and the medium you use, growing the plant is just the same as any other. Check out my related articles at the bottom of this article (or elsewhere on the site) for more help on growing.
The Pros and Cons of Using a 5-Gallon Pail to Grow Pot
With everything in life, there is good and bad. So, now we will go over the pros and cons of using a plastic 5-gallon bucket for growing marijuana. First up, we will go over the pros.
Pros of Growing Pot in a 5 Gallon Bucket
- Most households have one or more 5-gallon buckets kicking around. This means you don’t have to order pots online or head down to your local home improvement store for a growing container. It’s convenient for most of us.
- 5-gallon buckets are cheap to purchase if you need to. I’ve seen them at places such as Lowes or Home Depot for as little as $3.50 a pail on sale.
- Plastic buckets are very durable. Even if you have drilled multiple holes in it, your bucket will still be very sturdy.
- The capacity of a 5-gallon bucket is just about perfect for growing one weed plant indoors. No matter what kind of pot plant you end up growing, you should get a very good yield with this size of bucket.
Cons of Growing Pot in a 5 Gallon Bucket
- Moisture can easily be a big problem when using a 5-gallon bucket. Water should not be allowed to sit for too long in your grow medium. Your pot plant will either drown or get nutrient burn. The best way to keep your soil moisture levels in check is to invest in a soil moisture meter. A very reliable one is this moisture meter over on Amazon.
- ‘Rule of thumb’ for watering your weed plants is to water smaller (younger) plants every 3 or so days. As your plant gets larger, there will be many more roots so watering frequency will usually increase. Depending on your grow medium, you might have to water daily.
- Make sure the top inch or more of the soil is dry before watering.
- Fabric pots are extremely popular for anyone growing weed now for good reason. Not only do they allow the soil to dry out quicker than most other traditional pots, but the roots get exposed to oxygen. A plastic pot will not allow air to mix with your soil as much as a fabric pot. Make sure to cut/drill out as many holes as possible in your 5-gallon bucket.
- You are limiting how many roots you will have in a 5-gallon bucket versus a larger container. There’s a saying in the growing community that states “more roots, more fruits” which means a larger yield. Most people will probably be happy with the yield you will get when using 5-gallon pail.
I can’t think of any more cons to using a 5-gallon bucket. If you use my recommendations above, you will have success growing your pot plants. Now, let’s go over some more questions you might have on this topic.
How Many Pot Plants Can You Grow in a 5-Gallon Bucket?
Realistically, you could easily fit 2 pot plants in a 5-gallon bucket, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
If you just don’t have another bucket to use for a second plant and you aren’t concerned with how much yield you get at the end of your grow, then go for it.
If you are wanting to get the most usable bud from your plants, then give them their own growing space. The more room the more bloom, I just made that saying up but it’s true!
If you have 2 different plants vying for root space, one could choke out the other and then you have wasted a plant.
Does Pot Size Affect Yield?
The size of the growing pot definitely affects the yield of the marijuana plant. If you use a 1-gallon container, you can’t expect a sativa plant to grow to its full potential.
You might be able to get a good yield with some indica plants, but I wouldn’t recommend using something so small. The great thing about a 5-gallon bucket is that you can get a huge yield from this size of container.
Does Bigger Pots Mean Bigger Yields?
Yes, of course if you were to bump up the container size to a 7-gallon or larger, chances are your buds would get even larger. So, it might be something to consider on your next grow.
One way to test this is to use the same seeds or clones and try them at the exact same time in different sized containers. The reason for doing this at the same time is to make sure the growing conditions are identical for the seeds in the different sized containers.
How Big Will a Pot Plant Get in a 5-Gallon Bucket?
This will depend on what plant you are growing and the conditions it is given to produce for you.
What I would expect for a yield in 5-gallons of grow medium is at least an ounce or more of bud. If all conditions are good during the grow, then look for a yield of a few ounces. Make sure to use a good flowering fertilizer so those buds get extra large. Here’s a good one on Amazon you should check out.
But like I said, it all depends on what pot plant you decide to grow.
How Many Bags of Potting Soil Do I Need for a 5Gallon Bucket?
For 5-gallons you need approximately 20 quarts or 18.9 liters of soil.
If you want to be covered for a while and use an extremely good product for growing weed then make sure to have a look at this coco product on Amazon. You will have no problems growing in a plastic 5-gallon bucket if you use coco.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I just wanted to highlight a couple of important points in this article.
Using a 5-gallon bucket is just fine as long as you do the following things.
- Drill many holes in the sides and bottom of the bucket. If you can prop the bucket up a bit so water will drain out of the bottom even better. You will need some type of drip tray if you are growing indoors and don’t want water everywhere.
- Keep a close eye on the moisture levels in the bucket. Don’t let water sit and build up. If you do have water accumulation in the bucket, your plants will most likely get nutrient burn and or drown.
- A 5-gallon bucket is large enough to get a big yield from your plant.
Good luck with growing cannabis in a 5-gallon bucket!
Related Growing Marijuana World Articles
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How to Grow a Weed Plant at Home Without Equipment