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Aluminum foil and other questions

Hi,

In the book Mel says something about using aluminum foil underneath
plants to reflect light up and all around them. Has anyone tried this
process out? I was thinking about putting some under my tomatoes and
eggplants, will this burn the plants with too much light or heat? What
about bugs like aphids or mites which seem to be all over my tomatoes,
will this kill them or drive them away? If someone has tried this out
could you let me know what your results were because I would like to try
this when I get home from work tonight.

I have two more questions for you, the first, I have noticed what looks
like little white tufts of cotton fuzz on my tomatoes, is this some kind
of fungus or something. It comes off really easy and it doesn't look
like an insect but there is a lot of it on my plants.

The second question pertains to eggplants, does anyone know why my
plants might be growing so slowly? They are nice and healthy looking,
but, they aren't getting any bigger. Are they very heavy feeders, I have
been fertilizing them every other week, should I fertilize more
frequently? What about soil conditions, I am using Mel's mixture. Any
help is greatly appreciated!

By the way, I bought some ant killer from Gardens Alive and while it
worked for a little while I would have to put out gallons of the stuff
to kill all the ants! The ants died off but new ones quickly took their
place, there seems to be no end to them! They are all over everything,
eggplants, tomatoes, spinach, pole beans, cucumbers, radishes and even
my son's sunflowers, and I do mean all over! they don't seem to have
reduced in their numbers but I will continue to fight them. One good
thing I did notice yesterday was a lady bug on one of my pole bean
plants happily attacking some aphids, maybe there's still some hope!

Thanks again and so I was so long winded,
Richard (zone6)
Brooklyn, NY

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