diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/lib/solr/request/select.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/lib/solr/request/select.rb
index e4ddabd577a..120c129a8f5 100644
--- a/client/ruby/solrb/lib/solr/request/select.rb
+++ b/client/ruby/solrb/lib/solr/request/select.rb
@@ -40,9 +40,9 @@ module Solr
         http_params = []
         raw_params.each do |key,value|
           if value.respond_to? :each
-            value.each { |v| http_params << "#{key}=#{ERB::Util::url_encode(v)}" }
+            value.each { |v| http_params << "#{key}=#{ERB::Util::url_encode(v)}" unless v.nil?}
           else
-            http_params << "#{key}=#{ERB::Util::url_encode(value)}"
+            http_params << "#{key}=#{ERB::Util::url_encode(value)}" unless value.nil?
           end
         end
 
diff --git a/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb b/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb
index c536ff01190..2ffc63810c5 100755
--- a/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb
+++ b/client/ruby/solrb/test/unit/standard_request_test.rb
@@ -41,8 +41,15 @@ class StandardRequestTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal ['fq1','fq2'], request.to_hash[:fq]
     assert_equal "id,title,score", request.to_hash[:fl]
   end
+    
+  def test_empty_params
+    request = Solr::Request::Standard.new(:query => 'query', :debug_query => false)
+    assert_nil request.to_hash[:rows]
+    assert_no_match /rows/, request.to_s
+    assert_match /debugQuery/, request.to_s
+  end
   
-  def test_facet_params
+  def test_facet_params_all
     request = Solr::Request::Standard.new(:query => 'query',
        :facets => {
          :fields => [:genre,