The Tropical Gardener

I live in a condo in which 90% of the complex was damaged by hurricane ike. There is severe roof damage and 90% of the units in the complex lost 1 or more walls. The majority of us are all living with tarp that covers the holes in the walls.

In the last few weeks, heavy rains have compromised the roof even more, and now it is to the point that each moderate to heavy rain brings water into most of our units. The roaches are out of control and I anticipate this getting worse with the aproaching heat.

We are now going into another hurricane season, and there will be more heavy rains. The management company has done nothing to make repairs from either Ike or the storm damage from a few weeks ago. They have said that they are still hashing it out with the insurance company. While this may very well be true, we are all still making our rent payments, and some of the residents are making mortgage payments because they own their units. At this point, I am praying that God will spare us another hurricane or tropical storm this year, because the complex will not be able to handle it. If my lease was up any time soon, I would head for the hills, but I still have many months to go.

Who can we complain to? Is there any recourse. I feel that we are all at risk for many issues, including mold from the continued water in our homes, pests and the impending damage to our of our personal property if we should have a heavy storm or hurricane.

While I do have renters insurance, I would not like for the management to rely on the insurance of others while they bypass their own responsibility to us as residents.

A lot of my houseplants have spent the summer on the front porch, and they’ve done beautifully. Now I need to bring them back in … some are in their own pots, others are in mixed baskets with summer annuals that are ready for the trash heap.

Any tips on how to reacclimate the plants to the warmer indoor temperatures? Also, is there anything I should spray or wash them with to make sure they’re not bringing bugs in? Should I re-pot everything first? The plants are crotons, white butterfly nephthytis, palms, and some other kind of tropical.

Any help would be appreciated … Thank You!

with not much supervision in a tropical climate near the equator.

Im just trying to help the planet and go green.

OK, let’s say for a moment you want to grow a tree in a tunnel, and you have unlimited free electrical power. You have the tunnel walls completely sealed off so that you can control the climate and atmosphere, and can set up high intensity lights to provide the photo part of photosynthesis. You have unlimited desalinized water and nutrients through a hydroponic setup husky enough to support the root system of the tree.

You have 24 hour semi-tropical days, unlimited rainfall and nutrients, heightened CO2 levels and no pests whatsoever.

Question is, can you get the bastard to grow sideways so the resulting lumber will be usable? Does phototropism trump geotropism after germination?
What if you spin it on a constant basis?
Alright, assuming that the (slowly) rotating sealed cylinder has extensible support struts to attach to the growing trunk and branches to secure them in place and hold the tree as it grows, would the lack of a clear direction of gravity and the the constant supply of light from one end result in (after a few years lifespan) something reasonably like a timber tree, but grown sideways underground?

Yes i water the plant, and no, i do not over water the plant. Yes the plant gets some sun. I get tropical plants, and even bought plant food for the new plant, but he is not doing good at all.

The last plant i got was healthy, then all of a sudden he got weak, and then i noticed bugs that looked like centipeads (spelling?), where did these bugs come from?