What is a Full-Cycle Grow Room?
Full-cycle grows have plants remain in the same room for all phases of plant growth. They need to be set up to handle plants from the vegetative stage all the way through to flowering and cultivation. Cultivators typically opt for this style of grow when they have very limited space or they’re growing a small number of plants. They are easy to set up and manage, which makes this style popular among hobbyists and people growing for personal use. Full-cycle rooms will often be set up in free-standing tents with less space than a traditional grow room. This makes LEDs preferable as they are compact and produce less heat than HPS fixtures. The smaller room size makes it easier for the heat produced by grow lights to raise the temperature of the room beyond desired levels.
A full-cycle room needs to be able to handle every stage of plant growth, so having adjustable lighting is vital. You will want a PPFD close to 600 µmol/m2/s during the vegetative stage and up to 1500 µmol/m2/s for flowering. That means putting in powerful enough lights to support the plants during the more demanding flowering stage, and then dimming them so they don’t overwhelm the plant during the vegetative stage.
What Type of Light Should Use for A Full-cycle Grow
For full-cycle rooms we recommend the VOLT Grow 720W FL-1. Since full-cycle rooms need to support flowering as well as vegetating plants, it’s best to install a more powerful fixture and dim them when needed. The FL-1 has a built-in 0-10V dimming control knob, or it can be connected to an external dimming control module. This means you can easily dial back the light output for plants in the vegetative state. With an extremely high maximum light output of 2000 µmol/s, it has the power to increase yields during flowering. Their low profile and compact design allow them to fit in smaller grow rooms and any grow tents that are 4’x4’ or larger.
For grow tents with fewer plants, or less light hungry crops, our VOLT Grow 440W VL-1 grow light may be a better fit. It is more compact than our FL-1 allowing it to fit in 3’x3’ tents, but with a PPF of 1220 µmol/s it still has the light output needed to handle both the vegetation and flowering of smaller crops. The rotatable panels on the VL-1 allow you to concentrate or spread out the light it produces depending on the size of the canopy beneath it.
