First time grow - White Rhino

So I'm a first time grower, and I suspect like many newbies I'm about as excited as a kid at Christmas. I'm in OR and since it's legal I'm looking to grow full time. I am starting with two White Rhino clones that on 5-13 were about 6 inches tall. I've named them Adam and Eve so I can better keep track of what goes on with each plant. One was topped when I bought it, the other is still untouched. My "goal" is to grow them outside, Adam (the one that is topped) will be grown in a pot. Eve, I am putting into the ground. I want to run a test on the two of them. I want to gauge yield and growth state transitions and compare the two.

These were indoor clones and I'm moving them to outside. I've been hardening them off now for 5 days and have moved them both from the 3.5" square pots they were in to 1 gal pots. I put them out about 1/2 an hour before sunrise and bring them in about Sundown. After one week of this movement I'll be leaving them outside permanently.

Adam is much bushier than Eve due to the early topping. I repotted it on 5-13, Eve was repotted today on 5-18. Eve had fewer exposed roots than Adam, neither was root bound. I gave both a 1/10 strength nutrient water on the 13th. They got a lot of rain on the 15th and 16th. Adam's growth was slower than Eve's over the last 5 days. I credit the repotting of Adam for the slower growth as I am guessing it was focused on roots more than veg growth. That said there was still some pretty good growth.

I gave both of them a 1/10 strength feeding/watering today. I'm tentatively going to be using schedule of water/feed day one water day 4 and water feed day 7. Basically a 3 day cycle. Of course that will be depending on dryness of the soil, but so far that seems about where it will land. Not sure if that is too much food or not, sure don't want to burn them. I will be slowly elevating the feeding strength over the next month. A little more every feed and watching the results.

I've attached a pic of each plant here that was taken today 5-18. I'll be doing updates here fairly regularly. I'm keeping a spreadsheet currently, but believe there is value in a diary as well. Not to mention having experienced people looking over my shoulder!

During veg I'll going to be using FloraNova that is 7-4-10. Came highly recommended. Open to other suggestions as well.

I'm HOPING/THINKING that MAYBE I can be cutting clones off of these as early next week. Would love to hear any feedback people have on that topic.

My gut says the plants are doing OK so far, but would love to know what more experienced eyes see.

OK so I'm a total rookie, PLEASE any advice, thoughts comments are GREATLY appreciated. I'd like to hear how others have found success and places I need to be worried about stubbing my toes.

Woke up this morning to move the plants outside for the day, but it seems Mother Nature has a different idea. Suppose to be thunderstorms with the possibility of hail on and off today. So since they are still small enough I think I'll leave them in a window this morning, and move them out onto the deck when it warms up past 50 later in the day. I just fed them yesterday and I don't want the rain flushing everything out. Not to mention the idea of hail hitting them when they are this small doesn't appeal to me.

OK so I'm a total rookie, PLEASE any advice, thoughts comments are GREATLY appreciated. I'd like to hear how others have found success and places I need to be worried about stubbing my toes.

OK I've moved them out. Cold, low 50's and light nonstop drizzle. Forecast calls for rain all week. The rain is usually very light, about the same volume as you'd get from spritzing, slightly more wet than a heavy fog. I'm worried about the nutes flushing, but I also don't want to water as they are going to be wet for a week. Sunlight will be defused/gray due to the cloud cover. Probably will just leave them be on nutes and feed again when it next dries out.

Yesterday was weird, started to rain hard, as in some hailstones so I pulled them in. Back out this morning. Another grey Oregon day. I wonder if I am missing out on some growth due to the gray nature of the Sun. I just bought a 60 watt incandescent light. I was going to use it for my cloning tray. I am curious about using it on the plants when I bring them indoors at night. I make up that the small amount of light it would give them would make up for what they are missing during the day. This would basically have them in light 24 hours a day. I'm scared that when I no longer have them indoors at night that the smaller amount of light using just the sun might trigger them into flower. I don't think so, but it is a fear.

They are outside today at about 7:00 AM, cold - in the low 50's - high humidity, almost like fog.

This is a daily journal for me. I want to keep track of what I am doing and have something to refer back to. Since I'm new and this is my first grow I'd appreciate hearing from anyone that might have some feedback.

Friction1957 said:

Yesterday was weird, started to rain hard, as in some hailstones so I pulled them in. Back out this morning. Another grey Oregon day. I wonder if I am missing out on some growth due to the gray nature of the Sun. I just bought a 60 watt incandescent light. I was going to use it for my cloning tray. I am curious about using it on the plants when I bring them indoors at night. I make up that the small amount of light it would give them would make up for what they are missing during the day. This would basically have them in light 24 hours a day. I'm scared that when I no longer have them indoors at night that the smaller amount of light using just the sun might trigger them into flower. I don't think so, but it is a fear.

They are outside today at about 7:00 AM, cold - in the low 50's - high humidity, almost like fog.

This is a daily journal for me. I want to keep track of what I am doing and have something to refer back to. Since I'm new and this is my first grow I'd appreciate hearing from anyone that might have some feedback.

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g'day friction,
ur right, if they dont get light16 hours a day then they are gunna flip.
good luck
VG

verticalgrow said:

g'day friction,
ur right, if they dont get light16 hours a day then they are gunna flip.
good luck
VG

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Thanks Vertical. They'll be in full daylight so until about Sept I'll be good on the hours, "I THINK"

verticalgrow said:

g'day friction,
ur right, if they dont get light16 hours a day then they are gunna flip.
good luck
VG

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Just looked up day light hours. We're just barely under 16 hours here. Doesn't flip to under 12 until the end of Sept.

OK so maybe I'm a bit compulsive, but I can spend an hour out on the deck just looking at my two plants. The Sun has come out today and I've noticed a few different things. 1) Most of the new growth over the last week that was light green in color is turning dark green of a mature leaf. Not all of it, but it's twice as dark this afternoon as it was yesterday. The brand new growth at the nodes is still a light shade of green, but all of the growth that has a fully shaped leaf is now the darker color 2) I've been keeping my pots faced the same way every day. On Adam, the bushier of the two plants and that has been topped, 3/4's of the leaves are on the side that gets the most sun. On both of them you can literally watch the leaves turn to face the direction of the Sun as the Sun moves through the sky. 3) Eve the one that wasn't topped, is no where near as bushy, but seems to have about the same amount of new growth light green as does Adam. 4) I hear people talking about making some mistake with the grow and their stems turning red. Well ALL of my stems are this dark purple red color, with a very few striations of green. Is that bad?

Friction1957 said:

Just looked up day light hours. We're just barely under 16 hours here. Doesn't flip to under 12 until the end of Sept.

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For most strains, 13 1/2 hours of daylight is the switching point.

Good luck with your grow.

Larry {the} Gardener said:

For most strains, 13 1/2 hours of daylight is the switching point.

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That puts me into the last couple of days in Aug and 1st week in Sept for the turn. Gives me about 4 months of veg

Friction1957 said:

That puts me into the last couple of days in Aug and 1st week in Sept for the turn. Gives me about 4 months of veg

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That should be plenty long enough. I'm still popping seeds, so they will have less than that.

OK so I've run up against something I'm nervous about, my plants look different from others. Here are my two clones as of today 5-20. I've had the plants for one week today and they are maybe twice they size they were when I brought them home.


Eve at the top of the plant

Eve full plant


notice the open spaces. She hasn't been topped. I'm putting her in the ground in soon and want to get the tallest plant possible in the reminder of my grow season. I've been told that main lining gives the best yield for outdoor plants. Should I start trimming this now?

Next I've read that read red stems is an issue. Notice in this shot that mine are sort of a purplish reddish color. Am I doing something wrong that I need to fix?


Ok now for the other plant, the one I call Adam. Adam was topped when I got him 7 days ago. Here is how they topped it.You can see the main stem cut at a 45 degree angle at the top.


Now Adam is LOTS more bushy than Eve is. Way more nodes growing out of the main stem. It's so bushy I wonder if I am suppose to be doing something to it now. I want to take clones from both plants so I'd like to get my pruning to work with my cloning. So looking at Adam I don't THINK it's ready to get clones from. To be honest I really have no idea. Is this plant ready to star mainlining? If so where would you start?


Eve is about an inch taller than Adam. I'm growing outdoors and bringing them inside around sunset and putting them under a 60 watt incandescent that I bought to use on my clone tray. I'll harden them all the way off all the way once I get the clones started and move the light to the clone tray.

So I'm a total noob and anything anyone has to help would be greatly appreciated.

Breath in. Breath out.

I tell all new growers to buy a big bag of seedy pot and plant lots and lots of the seeds. You can learn in a much more relaxed atmosphere.

Not sure about the purple stems. Give the guys you got the clones from a call, and see what they have to say. It might be normal for those genetics.

I've never mainlined, but do top and lst my plants. Unless you are growing in tall trees, topping almost always increases yield. Like you said, way more nodes. Some of my plants that got lost and didn't get topped don't even look like the same strain they are so leggy. Lots of good tutorials on mainlining. Google it.

At the rate they are growing, another week or two and they will be big enough to take cuttings. If you need more light to veg the clones, buy a pack of 23w led's. Use several of them, close to the plants. 1-2 inches is best, but you need airflow to keep them from overheating.

Are the two clones you got off the same plant? Or just the same strain?

Larry {the} Gardener said:

Are the two clones you got off the same plant? Or just the same strain?

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same strain and the same grower. Not sure if they are off the same plant, I suspect not, but there is really no way that I can know for sure.

Friction1957 said:

same strain and the same grower. Not sure if they are off the same plant, I suspect not, but there is really no way that I can know for sure.

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Yep, you would be wise to go ahead take cuttings from both. If you happen across any stray pollen, you can seed a clone of each.

Larry {the} Gardener said:

Breath in. Breath out.

I tell all new growers to buy a big bag of seedy pot and plant lots and lots of the seeds. You can learn in a much more relaxed atmosphere.

Not sure about the purple stems. Give the guys you got the clones from a call, and see what they have to say. It might be normal for those genetics.

I've never mainlined, but do top and lst my plants. Unless you are growing in tall trees, topping almost always increases yield. Like you said, way more nodes. Some of my plants that got lost and didn't get topped don't even look like the same strain they are so leggy. Lots of good tutorials on mainlining. Google it.

At the rate they are growing, another week or two and they will be big enough to take cuttings. If you need more light to veg the clones, buy a pack of 23w led's. Use several of them, close to the plants. 1-2 inches is best, but you need airflow to keep them from overheating.

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Breath?????????? What a concept. How about I have a glass of wine and watch a movie with the girl

I'll check with the grower on the stems, thanks.

OK so I just topped Eve, well at least I think I did. I pinched the growth in the middle of the top node. Should I cut the whole top node off?

I'll wait until the end of next week for the cloning.

I'm mostly just trying to add a bit of light to the veg by bringing them in. The are getting 15 hours now of sun. Well Sun and cloud shade, depends on the day. I just thought that when I bring them in to avoid the colder nights that I might as well have some sort of light on them.

Just try to keep the hours of light the same. Light stress will cause some strains to change their name to Herman.

I just pinch the top off. I used to try to get as little as possible, but now I will get the next set of leaves if the top is too small for easy pinching. I smoke a lot of tops in the summertime, so I like to keep putting out a few young plants all along. Some of the younger ones always seem to be healthier at flower time. Might not pull as much weight, but I don't mind smaller plants if I have plenty of them.

As for the "red" in any branching. Some say it's a sign of the "poxyclips" and you have to make feeding corrections.
Nope! Looking at your plants. It's most likely them still stabilizing a bit still. I don't really use any stem/branch coloring as a sign of anything. Far too many other things make a bigger statement to plant health/needs, especially when their this young...

As far as cloning goes. I take clones right at the flip. The idea being, that they have the time to grow and when the first are harvested. The clones you took at the flip, are ready for flower.

Always take clones from as low on the plant as you can. Take the ones that look healthy. Your using the branching that you remove from basic lollypopping to get those clones from. Why not from the top of the plant - those nice big healthy as hell looking ones?
The lower ones have less N and certain hormones in them that allow them (the lower ones) to root much faster - In the end I feel that gives you a healthier clone!

Otherwise, your looking ahead of the curve for 1st timers around here!

Good luck