My first outdoor grow - White Rhino x ??

First off I would like to say how much fun I have had scouting for a good place in the woods. I never would have imagined just walking through the woods and looking around would be so entertaining. After crawling through many acres of dense underbrush over a period of about 30 hours in the last 4 weeks, I finally found a prime spot. I Had absolutely no hopes of finding a spot as good as this one, so I was pretty stoked when I walked in to it and knew immediately I had found my babies a home. I spent my day off just sitting at this spot from 9:00 this morning until 5:30 when the sun finally went behind the trees...I was never in the shade, and the sun was already shining brightly when I got there.

These plants are 4 weeks old from seed. The seeds are from a White Rhino clone which I got from a friend last year, grew indoors, and harvested earlier this year. I have no idea how I ended up with a half dozen seeds in one plant...I had 14 other plants, all female, and no seeds in any of them. Best I can figure is someone in the neighborhood let a male pop and a few grains of pollen found their way in to my grow room. Fortunately no harm done, and on an even brighter note: the plants look good so far. Only two of the six seeds popped, so thats all I'm working with for my first outdoor adventure...and an adventure it has been so far!

I started these seeds straight in the dirt - no paper towel or rock wool or cup of water...I was in no hurry so I just poked them down in some potting mix and kept them watered. The two that did sprout only took 2 days and I immediately put them in to the containers you see in these pics, where they have been for about three and a half weeks outdoors near my house. They haven't been getting as much sun as I would like, but I wanted to keep them close while they were getting some size on them. Also, you might notice they are leaning over...this is because I had them trained to keep them hidden while they were near the house. I think you can see the string and lead fishing weights I used to hold them down if you look. That mess will be coming off once I get them out in the woods tonight.
I'm waiting for it to get nice and quiet, and then I'm taking these lil' bastards to their new home, and I'll have some pics of them in the dirt tomorrow.


Here is a shot of the spot. This is before I did anything to it other than add a makeshift chair while I camped out for the day. I took both shots standing in one spot. The first is facing West, the second one is facing East from the same vantage point. I'm guessing its about 75 feet long East to West, but the small oak tree by my milk crate / chair is in the spot that gets the most morning sun, so my best plant out of those two will be going where it is, and the other will go about where I was standing. That is the spot that gets the most evening sun...we will see if what I hear about morning sun being better is true.

This is all I have for now. I'll have an update up tomorrow afternoon some time with more recent pictures of the plants.

On a side note: I'm new to the boards. I never saw a grow journal message board before, so I thought since I'm about to start a grow I would give it a shot Hope you guys enjoy. Please feel free to post any questions or comments in the thread, as I do not wish to maintain a separate thread for discussion.

That attached photo is an accident...I uploaded the wrong photo and don't know how to get rid of it sorry

Day 29 - Transplant Accomplished.

They are both in the ground. I'm almost done with all the prep. I have to go back and chop down another tree which blocks some of the second plant's early afternoon sun. It is pretty big to go at with a hatchet, but I'm sure ill manage. I made a mental note of this tree yesterday while I was out there, but I totally forgot about it while I was out there last night removing the smaller tree which stood where plant number 1 is now

I'm using an organic soilless potting mix with bone meal, blood meal, dolomite lime, and worm castings added, along with a few other goodies that I had laying around which I use in the garden.
I know it looks like I planted the plants right in the sand, but I just threw a layer of sand over the top because I read that you tend to get a lot of bugs outdoors if you use blood meal in the soil, and the layer of sand helps.
This is 100% organic for now. I will use a chemical PK spike (do you do this out doors??)because I just haven't found anything organic that does the job as well as the chemicals. Other than that I shouldn't have to touch these things except to water, and if we get rain here like we did last year I wont even have to water.

Here is plant 1


and plant 2


I'm making some worm casting "tea" to hopefully fend off any insects that may want to feast on my leaves. I already had a battle with some spider mites, but I think that war is over.
I never tried using worm casting like this before, but someone told me it works, so I figure I'll give it a try. I usually use coffee. That works really well.
I'm really scared of bugs right now...I enjoy working with the plants outside, but inside is so much more comforting when you think about all the insects that are outside!

I'll probably have updates every four to seven days.

So I went to pay a visit to the little ones today and managed to leave my camera on the kitchen counter, which is unfortunate, because I seem to be having some problems which I really should have visual documentation of (for my own records).

I have been using pretty much the same soilless mixture for a long time, so I know the PH is right around 6.8 when I'm done mixing it. The thing I failed to account for is the fact that this is going in to the ground and not in to a container. The lower leaves on both plants are turning yellow looking like a clear case of N def. which shouldn't be because there is plenty N in the mix, so I tested the PH and sure enough it is way too acidic(4.8 ). I guess the medium leeched acidity from the surrounding soil (or SAND as it were). I have no idea how to effectively adjust the PH without digging up the plant and mixing amendments in to correct the problem. Any advice would be great...keeping in mind that I'm trying to be as organic as possible.

Also, the spider mites were either not gone, or I have a new infestation. It's too late for the worm casting tea, so when I go back I'll have my neem oil with me to take care of it for sure.
They call it organic, but I don't consider it to be...I guess I will have to resort to it anyway.

Very nice work! Takes balls to grow outdoors!

Throw up some pics... Might be able to help.

I'll have some more pictures up Monday when I go back to check up on the spider mite problem. Hopefully the PH is up a little at that point. I put some baking soda in the water yesterday to try to get it up a little. I can't keep doing that though. Its just a temporary solution until I get something else figured out. Can dolomite be used effectively as a top dressing? On a brighter note- I don't think the things missed a beat when I put them in the ground. I didn't notice them slow down a bit.

Thanks, Turk! There is actually almost no risk at the spot I found. Not a single living soul can see me where I go in to the woods, and it is quite obvious that nobody goes back there. There is this type of moss that grows all over the ground, and if someone steps on it, it will crumble, leaving a perfect foot print, so I'll know before I even get to the spot If someone found the plants or not. If I see foot prints while going in, I'll just turn around, never to return... It's not worth going to jail over...been there - done that

So I have good news and bad news. Thankfully more good than bad.
Went out to water today, and this is what I found. Plant number 2 turned out to be a male, but I pretty much expected that to happen. I'm just not lucky enough to get 2 out of 2.

The good news is that plant number 1 is indeed a female!

She looks good at a glance, but upon further inspection there are a couple problems.

Like this one, where the leaves curl under...

...and are just generally out of sorts. Some curling up, some under, some tips bending one direction or the other...

Could have been the neem oil? Or perhaps minor heat stress? It's been 90 every day since I put them in the ground.

On the brighter side: More good news. The spider mites seem to be gone...for now, and growth rate is nice, though the side which was on the bottom when I had the plant trained completely sideways is still not filling out. You can see what I mean in this picture.

All is well though.
Any input on the wacky leaves would be appreciated.

I totally forgot I had a PH problem. I'm glad I started this journal! That would explain the twisted leaves...
I'll put some dolomite down before I water next time and see if that helps.
I went back out to test the PH again today when I remembered It was low, and while the baking soda worked as soon as I watered last time, its right back down to where it was before. Hopefully the dolomite will be a more permanent solution. If not, then I'll dig a much larger hole and adjust the PH of the mix to like 7.5 and see what happens when I transplant in to that.
The native sand must be super acidic, because the mix I used was a solid 6.8 when I mixed it up, and now its 4.8 after a week of being in the ground and two waterings. I didn't think to check it..
I really don't know what to do. If all else fails, since I'm down to one plant anyway, I can just take a 20 gal. barrel out there and grow in that!

Yeah I have the same type of sandy red clay in my area. Dolomite lime will help but it takes a long time to leach into the soil. you can water in wood ashes though and it acts a bit quicker.

I like your grow journal so far man! A lot of detail, lots of pictures, good stuff.

I really wanna guerrilla grow...maybe next year

This year I'm doing 4 purple power girls outside which i just started.

I really wanna grow some white rhino for my sleeping problems (and my dads, maybe? haha) i'm gonna follow this even though i wanna do my white rhino this winter inside

Are you around New England by any chance?

Wood ash. I knew that....why the hell didn't I think of that? Thanks, man!

New England? Nowhere near there, which is unfortunate. I hear it's nice there.
If you're looking to see what a White Rhino looks and grows like, you should probably find a journal from someone who isn't using mutt seeds.
Whatever pollen made the seeds was most likely from a shitty bag seed. Hopefully it was some commercial huge yield strain! I just decided to grow these seeds because I had them already and figured it would be better to trash some free seeds via learning experience than to pay fifty bucks for some and trash those.
The older bottom leaves DO look like white rhino though. Not quite as wide as I remember, but they have the same dark green color and the same super flat sheen.
Hopefully the bud is huge and dense like true WR too!

I'm off to burn some wood! Not to be mistaken with MY wood!

I'm guessing your seeds were from a self pollinated female. You prabably just never saw the bananas. As for tips, the best one you can take is keep it simple, and less is more. I can't stress it enough. I've had many grows fail back in the day from over thinking and over doing. Just keep it simple and you will succeed. I'll be watching and put in my 2 cents if you don't mind.

did you bring in your own soil before planting them outside or is that just the dirt from the area?

Copycat said:

did you bring in your own soil before planting them outside or is that just the dirt from the area?

Click to expand...

yeah i was thinking the same thing

northeastern lights said:

I'm guessing your seeds were from a self pollinated female. You prabably just never saw the bananas. As for tips, the best one you can take is keep it simple, and less is more. I can't stress it enough. I've had many grows fail back in the day from over thinking and over doing. Just keep it simple and you will succeed. I'll be watching and put in my 2 cents if you don't mind.

Click to expand...

Advice from someone who obviously knows what hes doing when I clearly do not is always welcome.
As for the seeds...I don't know man, you could be right, but I harvested and smoked all that bud myself last year. If there were pollen sacks I would have had to see them. And only six seeds? I'm going with the immaculate conception theory! hahahaha
In the end it doesn't really matter. I got a plant to experiment with, and that is a good thing. Time will tell about the genetics. I'll know if it is a full blooded White Rhino once it has been budding for a while.
I learned the same hard lesson the same hard way indoors about keep it simple. Right now I just have to get the PH up and spray some more neem oil, and I should be good to let her grow.
I have already learned a lot though, and I have to say - this is way more fun than growing indoors. I wake up on the days when I have to go out there and I'm actually excited to go check on her haha. When growing inside seeing the plants is nothing special...you see them every day if you want to. It's more like a chore to check on them.

I'll have another pic or two up in a bit. I have to go water in some wood ash and spray that neem so I'll get some more pics while I'm at it.

Copycat said:

did you bring in your own soil before planting them outside or is that just the dirt from the area?

Click to expand...

I added my own soilless mix, I just covered it with some of the native sand to keep gnats from invading. I hear they like blood meal.
That is all described in earlier posts.

Looks droopy because I had just sprayed the neem on.
Things looked better today. None of those curled leaves or anything like that. I also noticed that I'm not seeing any more leaves yellowing.
She seems to be growing a lot faster as well. The bare side (from when I had it trained sideways) has a couple of shoots coming out.
I went ahead and watered in some ash to bump the PH a little. Should start to see even more improvement over the next couple of weeks as the roots should be reaching the heavier nutrients by now.
This plant is going to be huge. I'm pretty stoked lol. If it is in fact all White Rhino, I'm going to get a nice yield.
I was getting like 7 and 8 ounces off of 4 foot plants. Cant wait to see what a 6-8 footer yields.

I've been thinking... I want to take some clones off this plant in a couple weeks, just in case it turns out to be true White Rhino, not a mutt like I was thinking.
The problem is this: I no longer have any lights for starting clones, so I would have to do it outdoors.
Any suggestions on how to start clones outside where I can't check on them every day? I was thinking pete pellets in standing water with a clear lid, but would the sun be too hot on them, and wouldn't I need to open the lid up every day for air?

I could also make some poor man's CO2. that would take care of needing to open the container. One batch of yeast should last long enough to carry the new clones till they are ready to put in the ground.

I'm just kicking around ideas. If anyone has any experience doing this, I would love some insight and/or advice.

So I went to water this morning, and what I found was not good...
I've got these

And these, which when I first spotted I thought was a male flower, because it was right in the crotch of a chute coming off the main stem munching on a new set of leaves. I had to flush it out to get a pic of it.
I was more pissed off about it nearly giving me a heart attack than I was that it was having pot salad for breakfast.

Turning my plant in to Swiss cheese

I also have some sort of yellowing going on around the veins of some of the fan leaves. I have diagnosed this before but I cant remember what it is. Gotta look that up.
Could have been a better picture. I couldn't really tell on the LCD screen how the pictures turned out with the sun out and all.

She still looks pretty healthy though.


Still filling out nicely. Lots of new growth in the last 4 days.
First the mites, now the grasshoppers and that other thing...
Once I figure out how to get rid of these damn insects everything should be ship shape.

Looking good, i wouldn't worry about the bug damage, it's very minimal. Wouldn't hurt to hit em with some bug killer. I like safer 3 in 1 myself but am trying something new this year. Has worked good so far.