In response to a six year old comment on a very old thread, urine is actually quite sterile. What comes out the other end is not. That's the best thing to wrap your head around. I find that putting urine on my compost pile raises the temperature noticeably. It really does seem to accelerate composting. Urine sure won't do anything about the pH level of the bed, and wood ash is about the worst thing you can do about alkaline soil. My soil is alkaline, and I consider wood ash mildly toxic waste. (Though in very modest quantities, it is fine to put in a compost pile.) Per unit weight, wood ash is about half as effective in increasing alkalinity as lime.

Hi Joel, You started a good thread. My top six priorities would be 1. Adequate light 2. Adequate light 3. Adequate light 4. Adequate light 5. Adequate water (evenly moist media) using either soil-based or expanded clay pebble sub-irrigation (aka hydroculture). 6. Scouting for pests and pest management If you are really interested in the "secrets" of professional interior plantscaping spend some time on the Plants-in-Buildings website. Kenneth Freeman, the primary author deserves the equivalent of an Academy Award for this website. I would gladly carry his briefcase for what I would learn from him. IMO this is the most educational and informative website about indoor plants on the web with no close second. Read what he has to say about sub-irrigation (commonly and erroneously called self-watering). Read what he has to say about digital light meters (PDF file). Buy a digital foot-candle (or more widely available lux ) light meter. eBay is a good place to buy one. It will cost less than a good quality kitchen knife. You will pay for the meter from your savings not having to replace dead plants. Using window direction, distance from a window and hand-shadows as means of measuring light for indoor plants are highly inaccurate methods. They are a guess at best. I've measured light differences within a foot that could mean the difference between a healthy or unhealthy plant. You can buy a digital lux reading (10 lux = about 1 foot-candle) meter (with a case) on eBay currently for about $35 delivered! If the meter reads 1,000 lux that's about 100 foot-candles. It's very easy to read a lux meter and convert to f.c. by simply moving one decimal point to the left. I'll gladly help you or anyone else select one to buy. Plants-in-Buildings has arguably the best plant selector guide on the web. It the plant you're interested in isn't included here I'd suggest forgetting about it being a good year round indoor plant. Hope this was of help. Good luck with your plants. Greenscaper

Although the name RMV has been utilized in this discussion, one does not know which virus or group of viruses is/are giving these symptoms (if it is virus caused). Leaf cupping is often listed as a possible rose virus result. The link below is rather old (1998), but it appears (to me) to be years ahead of its time regarding the viruses of roses. "In general, symptoms of virus and viruslike infections that are visible on the leaf may include overall chlorosis (yellowing) or chlorotic mottling; yellowing, or clearing of the veins; green or brown banding of veins (a dark green or brown color that parallels the veins); yellowish green to bright yellow spots and blotches; and various fine lines, some resembling an âÂÂoakleafâ pattern and others appearing as erratic, wavy âÂÂwatermarks,â or as definite rings (Figure 1). The leaves may also be misshapen, puckered, recurved, cupped, twisted, brittle, and smaller than normal. In some cases, the leaves are cast prematurely. Canes often have shorter than normal internodes, resulting in stunting or severe dwarfing of the plant, or a âÂÂballingâ (rosette growth) of the new terminal growth. In some cases, there is severe cane dieback. Only one or a few canes of a plant may exhibit symptoms, or the entire plant may be affected. With some of these diseases, only the new leaves and canes develop symptoms; with others, it is the mature, older leaves and canes that are visibly affected. Usually, the higher temperatures and drier conditions of summer inhibit virus or virus like activity in the plant. As a result, rose plants that had symptoms of infection in the spring commonly resume normal or near-normal growth in summer. With a return of cooler temperatures in autumn, symptoms often reappear, depending on the variety of rose, the strain of the virus or other agent, and environmental conditions. Although rose plants may seemingly tolerate infection, with symptoms appearing and then disappearing during the year, the agent does exert an overall debilitating effect and may eventually kill the plant. Aside from the acute symptoms that develop on leaves and stems, the plant suffers a chronic decline in vigor that, in cooler climates, increases the chances of winter-kill. Infected plants also show a decline in flower production and quality. Flower petals may show mottling, distortion, and line markings." Here is a link that might be useful: link to 1988 article

Hi Casey, it has been up there a month. So it should be okay. jn3344 - honestly, at this point I don't remember if I used one or two cans. It may have been one, but for some reason I am thinking I may have bought another can in there somewhere, but between trim paint, primer, door paint and ceiling paint the purchasing of various white paints are starting to run together. I did use a new can on my daughter's ceiling because in the jumble of cans we have floating around I didn't see anything that looked like ceiling paint in the barn so whatever I bought we used up. I have also been distracted with other paint "emergencies" halfway through the ceiling project.