Growing in a room you control completely, which means every variable is now yours to get wrong: lighting choice and intensity, temperature and humidity held against a target, carbon dioxide, and the irrigation system feeding the pots.
The board covers the three decisions that set everything else. What the light is and how much of it reaches the canopy each day. What the air is doing, expressed as vapour pressure deficit rather than as humidity alone, because the plant responds to the difference between leaf and air rather than to either number. And what the roots sit in and how often they are fed, which is where recirculating and drain-to-waste systems part company.
Two things are worth internalising early, particularly in this climate. Dehumidification, not cooling, is usually the binding constraint in a tropical indoor room, and it costs more than growers plan for. And carbon dioxide supplementation only pays when light, temperature and feeding are already at the ceiling, which is why it belongs at the end of an optimisation list rather than the start.
Where to start