Companion planting in winter

I'm going to be planting a winter crop and want to know if they need companions to keep certain bugs away the way they do in the spring and summer.

Some of the things I will be planting are:

Touchstone Gold Beet
Green Sprouting Broccoli
Chirimen Hakusai Cabbage
Scarlet Nantes Carrots
Champion Collard Greens
Creasy Winter Cress
Vates Kale
Bandit Leeks
Winter Density Lettuce
Oregon Sugar Pod Peas
Daikon Radish
Winter Spinach

Depending on your climate, the pest load should be greatly reduced in the cold of winter.
If you can find companions that will also survive alongside your crop plants, they could help.

A few bug bites can be tolerated. You can loose 10-20% of your leaves without worrying about crop loss.
You'll probably loose more plants to weather than bugs.

Good luck...there's nothing like fresh veggies in winter.

Ashley, you said NE Alabama, right? Have you been successful planting winter crops this late? I sure haven't. About the only thing I could plant now and get a harvest would be short season radishes and small garden turnips and kale... it's not cold enough to stop kale from growing here. Cabbage, carrots, beet, broccoli and peas I planted in early august and it's still a toss-up if the cabbages will put on enough growth. Once they are grown, though, I can leave them in the ground outside most of the winter. (And I put garlic in in late Oct or early Nov.)

Fall pests that I deal with are caterpillars (which are tapering off now), whitefly on cabbage and slugs (year round). Not much else is an issue. Sometimes late aphids but it's been too cool the past couple of weeks for them to be a problem.

Nicole Castle wrote:Ashley, you said NE Alabama, right? Have you been successful planting winter crops this late? I sure haven't. About the only thing I could plant now and get a harvest would be short season radishes and small garden turnips and kale... it's not cold enough to stop kale from growing here. Cabbage, carrots, beet, broccoli and peas I planted in early august and it's still a toss-up if the cabbages will put on enough growth. Once they are grown, though, I can leave them in the ground outside most of the winter. (And I put garlic in in late Oct or early Nov.)

Fall pests that I deal with are caterpillars (which are tapering off now), whitefly on cabbage and slugs (year round). Not much else is an issue. Sometimes late aphids but it's been too cool the past couple of weeks for them to be a problem.

We're in NW Alabama and have had a successful fall garden. We have Yellow top turnips, kale, collards, mustard greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and squash. Aside form spinach, the greens can handle the cold deep into November. Everything else can have cold frames built around them to provide fresh produce nearly all winter. I don't think you'll have too many pests aside from a stray cabbage worm. Cabbage shouldn't be dying on you here as we used to get 3 plantings a year in WI with the last harvest in the middle of December. Ducks are great for slugs.

This is actually my first year to try planting for winter. The seed set I ordered was called "Snowdown" and said all of these varieties should be hardy into winter. I guess we will see

Jeremy Moore wrote:
We're in NW Alabama and have had a successful fall garden. We have Yellow top turnips, kale, collards, mustard greens, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and squash. Aside form spinach, the greens can handle the cold deep into November. Everything else can have cold frames built around them to provide fresh produce nearly all winter. I don't think you'll have too many pests aside from a stray cabbage worm. Cabbage shouldn't be dying on you here as we used to get 3 plantings a year in WI with the last harvest in the middle of December.

It's a strange and lovely fall, isn't it? For me, a bumper crop year for radishes and salad turnips, and the snap peas are amazing.

I don't use cold frames although I do use row cover. etc. Cabbage... we'll see. No heads forming yet but the weather looks good. Worst case scenario is I just eat the leaves.

This is actually my first year to try planting for winter. The seed set I ordered was called "Snowdown" and said all of these varieties should be hardy into winter. I guess we will see

Hardiness and maturity are two different things. Just because the beets don't die doesn't meant they will get enough energy to form roots for you to eat. (Of course you can still eat the tops, so no harm in trying.) Generally speaking, I direct seed my fall/winter crops in August with radishes and turnips going into September, then harvest from Sept to Dec or Jan. I don't plant kale -- hate the stuff -- but it's happy being transplanted in September and even October.