I'm sorry, Rebecca, but IMO there's a lot of unsupportable information and conjecture in the advice you've received on this thread so far. Allowing the plant to dry down is going to cause leaf tip and marginal leaf necrosis (dead tips & leaf edges). The plant needs almost NO fertilizer indoors, so it's dangerous to the plant to fertilize one week with fertilizer 'A' and the next week (even the next month - especially "all through the seasons") with 'B'. With this plant, that type of fertilizing virtually guarantees greater leaf burn unless you are growing in an extremely fast soil. IF you were to adopt that regimen, you could only use a tiny amount of fertilizer in each gallon of water - a drop or two, or you should expect burn. This plant actually tolerates low humidity (to about 15%) IF the plant is fertilized properly and not over-fertilized. It's NOT the lack of humidity that causes leaf tip & marginal necrosis (though when the plant is over-fertilized, it IS a contributor), it's a high level of soluble salts in the soil that makes it difficult for the plant to absorb water that is almost always to blame. Over-fertilizing, as suggested, will simply exacerbate the problem. Alternating fertilizers with a bloom-boosting blend would also be very counter-productive. The plant uses about 6 times as much N as it does P, so there is no way to justify adding fertilizers with unnecessarily high levels of P to the soil that cannot be used by the plant. The added P simply causes more burning. Allowing this plant to go 2-4 weeks w/o water will force it into an 'environmental dormancy' as a drought response. This kills the top growth (leaves) which are making the food for the blooms in the next bloom cycle. I don't think that's what you need to promote blooming. IMO, Superthrive, used as a tonic is useless. (I'll provide a link to some experiments I performed if you're interested). Misting the plant, IMO, is also counter-productive and more apt to cause problems than solve them. It's generally accepted that the presence of 'real soil' in container soils is best avoided. It compacts, slows drainage, and greatly reduces the most important characteristic of container soils - aeration. I'm wondering why, if someone "... learned this trick several years ago. Alternate fertilizers. For instance, fert with an All Purpose one month or week, however often you fertilize, then use a flowering type fertilzer [sic] the next feeding. Continue doing this throughout the seasons." there would be this offering just a little up-thread: "... I rarely fertilizer PL's, though I'm not suggesting others do the same. Last year (2008) mine got one spring feeding, before that, they went two, possibly three years without. Other than once a month Superthrive and fresh soil, (true soil, not soil-less) they were on their own. Yet they bloomed, several times, in the last 3 years." That seems like a complete contradiction to me. May I suggest: A south window behind window treatments that diffuse a good part of the light or an east window. Keep the plant at 65-90* - no lower than 65*, very low doses of any 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer whenever the plant is growing robustly, whenever you water - water thoroughly and flush the soil of salts each time - then allow the plant to dry just to the point you notice the slightest bit of wilting and water again. Watering with deionized (distilled) water when you're not watering with fertilizer solution will go a long way toward curing the burn problem and you wouldn't need to flush the soil at every watering, either. Take care - wishing you well with your plant. Al

Thanks for the follow ups, really good information. I'll try to address each comment and ask some more questions. fluffybunnysui: The 1st contractor called me last night to ask about what I was thinking about doing to fix it. I told them I had a 2nd contractor come out and test it and told me the expansion valve. 1st contractor said that they determined it WAS NOT the expansion valve because they blocked off one side of the flow at/on the compressor, and the bypass valves opened and it couldn't suck the pressure all the way down.(I don't really understand how it works, I have replaced Automobile A/C but just followed basic instructions.) 2nd part: Both contractors said that they *think* the evap coil is icing up. Because we could turn the unit off for hours, let it melt, and then it would blow really cold again for a short time. Unfortunely for me, I had to leave the house today and go to work in a different city for the week. I can't spray the unit off, and my wife doesn't feel confident doing it, but the 1st contractor is due out to the house later today. thanks. Jack Mason: thanks, the 2nd contractor did show me their pricing on new units. Said $2,899 for a new evap coil and all related work. $4,600 for a 12 SEER outside unit. (my system is a 14 SEER I believe). Reading the link you provided now. thanks. Heatseeker: I don't know what refrigerant is used in my system. A quick web search points to R-410A. The unit is a Carrier unit, Model: 24ABA430A300 Serial # 4506E08945

On the Laundry Room forum I added the following information. But I am really looking for some guidance in external wiring. No, no overloading. We never used the two highest loads of 'Extra Large' and 'Super'. This is a GE top-load washer. I never had any problems with GE washers, and other GE appliances. My GE refrigerator lasted since 1987, but I replaced it with a more energy-efficient model. It is very difficult to blame a manufacturer or a particular model when it very well might be a problem with the external electric wiring. For that reason I am posting my problem here. Next step might be hiring an electrician to check out the wiring between breaker and wall outlet at the washer. The GE repair man said he would check the external wiring possibly next. Again, this has never happened to me since we own houses since 1974. I basically wonder what's going on here. Having 2 fail in succession is very unusual. First I thought the first one was a lemon, then that the service guy did not know how to fix it. But then the second one failed too. These washers have this new wave action washing, it seems when we pick a water level too high for the amount of clothes, water will swap out of the tub, coming out from under the washer. But any manufacturer should shield the electric parts from water spillage, I hope. We never have overloaded the machine, we actually handled washing with this model the same as we did with its predecessors. We noticed that at times with the second machine we heard something like rifle shots. I guess that could have been shorts in the windings of the motor, it smelled like electric shorts. After it does that for a few days, the agitator/spinning no longer works. These are top-load clothes washers, around $500, no extra whistles, model GTWN4250MOWS. We always bought the same type GE washer. We never had any new appliance fail on us within 6 years after purchase. Here we have 2 fail each after 1/2 year. The home was built in 1978 in a residential suburb. The home builder was well known in the area. When I did some wiring on other circuits, I noticed that they used copper wire and were grounded. Thanks! Bernd

doraville>>>Are you liking the floor? It looks great. Where did you get it? I've been considering strand woven bamboo.The flooring is Teragren Synergy Strand bamboo, color Java. It is hard as a rock and dense, and also not too thick (1/2"). It looks great and works great. More details here: http://www.teragren.com/products_flooring_synergy.html We bought it, where else, in Dalton Georgia. Actually Calhoun, near Dalton, at True Hardwoods (http://www.truehardwoods.com/home.html). They had the best price by far - all I had to do was go up there and pick it up in the van.