[oldcow]

This is my first year growing veggies, and I'm thinking of growing a few winter veggies under some cover. One question I have is, do the various pests that plagued my veggies during the rest of the year be still active during the winter? In various stages I got blackfly, slugs and snails, flea beetle, leaf miners, cabbage white caterpillars...

[mumofstig]

You'll still get slugs if it's not really cold and you can get whitefly on brassicas.

and hungry pigeons can eat a lot, in some areas

I don't know what you were thinking of growing, but it is late for the main winter veg?

[oldcow]

I'm thinking of winter lettuce, some oriental veggies, and I have some cabbages that I've sown some time ago.

[mumofstig]

the oriental veg and cabbages can most certainly get mealy aphids, look here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/advice/pests_and_diseases/nonflash_index.shtml?mealy_cabbage_aphid

[jdwmk]

I have my Tuscan Kale under debris netting and it is suffering big time with whitefly but then so is everyone on our site. They are an absolute b****r to clean off, sad as I am, I spent 20 minutes the other day scrubbing the leaves to get them off but it was worth it.

I have suffered from a few slugs but managed to keep the cabbage white away from the cabbages, kale and brussels under the same netting. It is just the whitefly causing issues really.

After reading this and hoping the frost would kill them off I am wondering whether I was right. Does this mean I will need to spray them with bug clear or some such? I have seen that some whitefly are resistant (greenhouse variety?) are these going to be resistant aswell? Does anyone know how to get rid of them? It sounds as though we are never in the clear when it comes to grow your own! Something else always wants to get in on the act first.

[Aidy]

The biggest problem you will have under cover is mould spores, I tried to grow winter gems in the greenhouse, I had very limited success, I think the commercial growers use air blowers that keeps the air moving and at a constant temp.
There is not a lot else to worry about, most pest tend to hibernate in the cold.
Of course you could use heaters but then it wont be worth the expense of running it.
Do as I do and find something else to do during the winter when my plot is waiting for spring.

[Fisherman]

I find growing true winter veg like cabbage, sprouts, leeks, swede etc. are fine and crop really well. Anything grown under cover like lettuce, oriental leaves either grow too slow or as Aidy says they get mould of some description. If you like it Radicchio is pretty hardy although mine suffered last year in the severe weather. Better to spend your time developing a sowing plan for next year including winter veg.

[SUTTY1]

Whitefly wasnt on your list but if you had them in the summer they'll survive in the winter, even the 2 months of snow and sub-zero temps we had last winter didn't stop the plague that thrived on my PSB and sprouts
Sorry to sound doom and gloom but been a serious problem last 3 yrs for me(any tips welcome) but i'll still keep-on growing