On 19/02/20 11:28, john west wrote:
We want to put some bamboo plants and also some Conifers in large
buckets (holes drilled for drainage).

Would wood chip (or anything else) be useful to add to the bottom of the
buckets to provide future nutrition when it has rotted down?

Received wisdom has it that wood chip, bark, and other shredded wood
material /removes/ nitrogen as it rots, but that nitrogen will later
become available to any plant in the pot once composting has completed.
There is a long thread he
https://permies.com/t/58634/urban-myth-woodchips-nitrogen
which discusses the issue (and differences between wood chip added as
mulch, and that put deeper into the soil), which you might find interesting.

To be honest, unless you are planting hundreds of pots, why not just use
a decent compost on its own and add fertiliser later if the plants start
showing nutrient deficiency in one way or another.

--

Jeff