White Rhino growers, little help please...

[snowking]

How long do you flower this strain?

I took my first crop at 66-69 days. The Green House Seed Co states "9 weeks will guarantee rock hard tops". Many different seed bank websites say let it go for 10 weeks for maximum quality.

By 66 days the tops of every single plant were growing out flowers and, well, going bad basically. I'm a relatively inexperienced grower, so I'm not sure of the correct terminology, but if you flower a plant for too long the tops start to really morph and change. The structure of the buds changes entirely. I was told that when the tops flower like that the THC drops pretty bad too.

If you've never experienced this my terminology is a bit confusing because when a plant flowers it creates buds. Buds are a synonym for flowers. But a friend of mine who's been growing for 14 years used the phrase "the buds are shooting up flowers".

If you are an experienced grower and you've overgrown a batch or two you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. In which case, feel free to educate me as to what the hell is going on with my plants.

Anyways, here are some details... ez-cloner to coco coir, 4 week veg under 400's, SOG flower under 600's. 3 part GH, Liquid Karma, CalMag+.

It was pretty sickening. I had a boatload of 12"-14" cola's. I tried to save as much as I could, but I threw out a half a pound of the tops. And by "threw out" i mean gave them to a friend to make hash. Without this tragedy this would have been about a pound off of a 600w HPS.

If you've grown White Rhino (or know someone who has) I'd like to know how many days you're flowering them. thx, peace

snowking Reviewed by snowking on 02-06-2010. White Rhino growers, little help please... How long do you flower this strain? I took my first crop at 66-69 days. The Green House Seed Co states "9 weeks will guarantee rock hard tops". Many different seed bank websites say let it go for 10 weeks for maximum quality. By 66 days the tops of every single plant were growing out flowers and, well, going bad basically. I'm a relatively inexperienced grower, so I'm not sure of the correct terminology, but if you flower a plant for too long the tops start to really morph and change. Rating: 5

[LOC NAR on probation]

Days mean nothing. It is all in the color of the TRICHOMES.

If you look them up you will find the gail you seek.

Lucky friend you have. Maybe the best never hash he had.

It does not matter the strain or anything. You must follow the trichomes.

There was nothing wrong with that half pound you threw out. That is just the character of that strain.

If you got near a pound under a 600 you should be teaching the rest of us.

1/2 gram per watt= excellent
600watts= 300grams.

[snowking]

I appreciate the reply. Like I said, kinda new, and the guy I sell it to only sells to dispensaries. The last time I talked to him he told me that my tops were still pretty white, and he has a harder time selling it to the clubs.

Now, I clearly understand the difference between trichomes and hairs on the plant. I agree with you, and I've always used the trichomes as a guide. My distributor was referring to the red hairs, not the trikes. My plants mature from the bottom up. When the trikes are hitting their stride and screaming "ready for harvest", the bottom 2/3 of the plants have fantastic red hairs all over the buds, but the tops still haven't turned yet.

It wasn't my intention to harvest this late, but I was sick for a few days, then I needed to harvest some other plants in front of the Rhino's.

In the grand scheme of things, I'm so wet behind the ears, it's a bit embarrassing. I have little ability to diagnose plant problems at this point. Mostly I've just taken what was taught to me and tried to figure out ways to improve it.

About the time I get my (modified) SOG grow perfected, I'm going to be switching gears and dropping my plant counts to get legal. There's a guy on another forum a while back that pulled a pound off of a single plant (Chronic) under a 400w light. That's the new gold standard. That will become my new reason for living. Although I've been told to reasonably expect maybe half of that, under 600's.

As far as the Rhino's go, it just seems so surprising that Green House and others can grow the exact same strain for so many more days and have different results. I didn't know that number could vary so much from grower to grower.

[snowking]

Actual Yield
Yield in ounces 28.57 oz
Yield in pounds 1.79 lb
Grams per plant 16.20 gr
Ounces per plant 0.57 oz
Grams per watt 0.68 gr
Grams per square meter 619.06
Pounds per kilowatt 1.49
Watts per square foot 84.38

This was my mini grow report from a previous harvest. It was a strain called Early Girl Haze. Pretty good yielding plant but not abnormally so.

I grow in a modified Sea of Green style that is basically 25 plants in 1 gallon pots under each 600w HPS. This was 50 plants total @ 810 grams from two 600w lights. Actually, I branched/trimmed the plants under each light a little differently, so under one 600 i pulled 390 grams. The other table was 420 grams. And yes, that's dried, cured, and bagged weight.

It's quite a sight to behold, 5 rows of 5 plants, each with a 10"-14" cola. Basically 7 square feet of solid buds, per table.


Your comment that there was nothing wrong with those tops is kind of troubling. I'm gonna have to beg to differ. When the buds are in great shape they're pretty firm all the way to the top. Like mini baseball bats. When they start to go the actual formation of the buds starts to change dramatically. I really wish I would've taken some pictures. Not only does the structure of the buds change, but the main stem becomes really soft and flexible where the buds are starting to morph. So the bottom half of the cola looks good and has a stiff stem, but the top half becomes so soft and flexible that you can bend the top 90 degrees over, and spin it around 360 degrees and it doesn't crimp, break, or damage it. Also the individual buds start to elongate and stretch out and become super airy and fluffy. And when it's all been cured and you separate out the buds from all the stems, the stems themselves have a deformity on them. Only at the points where the buds went bad. The bottom half of the main stems were mostly smooth, as usual, but the top half of the stems were kinda weird and gnarly.

I set some aside and smoked it later and it had a sour and harsh taste to it and wasn't as stony. There was very clearly something wrong. I suppose a picture is worth a thousand words. Like I said, if this ever happens again, I'll get some pics and put them up. I feel like I'm failing miserably at trying to describe them.

[senorx12562]

I harvested my w/r at 57 days and it was perfect. Got nothing but raves from all who tried it. I harvested when about 70% of the trichomes were cloudy, but none were amber yet. I wanted a little headier high, and was very happy with the result. The first pic is @ 46 days.

[snowking]

those look so fantastic. My digital camera is 10 years old. I can't get that close. I'm gonna have to go find a thread on "how to produce bud porn" (and buy a new camera).

yeah, that Early Girl Haze is generally good for me right around 53 days. 57 for the Rhino certainly sounds right. thanks

[lampost]

I feel like I'm failing miserably at trying to describe them.

Are you talking about "fingering" or "spearing", where the buds kind of get little shoots on them that make the bud kind of look like it has fingers or spears?

I thought this was caused by heat stress... I've never heard that this can be caused by letting the plant go a little long. Can anyone verify this info? Maybe the plant becomes more sensitive to heat in it's later stages of life therefore creating a greater chance for spearing?

[snowking]

holy crap, you might be right. I kinda need to cut the legs down on my grow tables. And these definitely got closer to the light than I would've liked.

I never thought of heat stress because the leaves weren't showing it that bad. And that Early Girl Haze strain that I grow I've scorched the crap out of the leaves and even burnt some buds a little (when I was even less experienced) and they didn't turn out like this.

It's worth noting that I have glass on my reflectors and they are ventilated. Interesting. If you are correct then one strain shows it's stress more in the leaves and the buds fare a little better, and in the White Rhino the leaves hold up better but the buds get hammered.

thanks for the tip. I really hope that's it. I started out growing under 400's, and that batch was my 2nd grow under 600's. So, i'm still finding my way. I'm gonna grab my tape measure and go check out the ladies.