Pulled mine today and saw an issue I’d not had before. Here’s the harvest…
And here’s the issue. I had 2 with eaten out centers and one which seemed to be nibbled from the side.
I guess it could be some kind of rot (?) or possibly a varmint. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
If it is a varmint, I’ll have to revise my previous remarks.
Whoops. Maybe so.
That’s pretty different- but I’ve occasionally had a kind of wireworm looking thing do something like that. But’s pretty rare.
I don’t know about voles and such eating garlic, but I’d think you’d see incisor marks if it’s that kind of thing.
I have seen similar issues on occasion. I’ve had onions hollowed out from the inside leaving just a shell, like the one with it’s root-end facing us in the photo. I believe it was pill bugs and worms that ate out their innards; at least those are the critters I saw when I pulled one to investigate. There may have been rot involved first but I did not see any signs of it early on. There are some rots of onions/garlic which can cause similar issues too, and no doubt the various critters are happy to help out. Might be prudent not to plant onions/garlic in this bed for a few years.
The closest bulb, with a side chewed off looks like my onions/garlic when the gophers take an interest in them. Pocket gophers seem to be one of the few animals (other than humans) that like onions and garlics I don’t usually see rot at the eaten edge, but I typically catch the damage fairly early on and replace the bulb with some bait, but I suppose it would rot just from the exposure if left long enough. Regardless it does look like rodent damage.
HTH