back in the 90s, we had an empty closet with the grow light, they grew fine without any nutrients till the time I chopped them down
Ty for noticing, I noticed it a long time ago on other forums winning lights for the best garden, back in the 90s I grew 1 as a thing to see if it can be done with basic water & light did pretty good without any deficiencies in the leaves through the vegetation stage, now they want you to buy a tent a filter, co2 canisters, etc, what happened to the good ole days when basics were only needed? the rest can be learned after the basics
Everyone can draw their own lines. Their situations are all different. For instance some guys bust on 'tents' because they have rooms. I'll never have a room. We own a house, and all the rooms are taken, so I have a tent in our utilities room in the basement. It provides the size I want and also keeps the environment mostly in control. I have lights, fans, humidifier (in tent) dehumidifiers (out of tent). I'll never have AC. I'll never have CO2. They don't work with the space I have or my level of need. I don't want more than a few plants at a time, so no installing splits, etc. Instead I have a humidity controller, a temperature controller, a fan controller and call it a day there. Across a day my plants remain within a window 10f degrees (75-85f), my humidity remains within about 5% or less, my VPD is .9-1.3 All good enough for me.
Some people grow on their windowsills, or in a corner of their basement or whatever. Good for them, if they're getting the result they want in the space they've chosen to use.
People sure spend a lot of time worrying about what someone else is doing or how they do it.
One of my college friends had a pretty extensive home-brew closet/staircase grow and loved it, and had automated as much as he could at that time...and that was back in the late 80's. Tin-foil and all that. He was happy with it then, but again what's available for people to grow has changed, expanded and become more sophisticated. I can't see how more options in any direction are a bad thing.