Hello! I’m hoping the TMG can come to my help again. The flower buds on most of my alliums have been eaten or taken away. Just a tall stem and top of the bud missing. There is nothing on the ground leftover of anything being eaten. The leaves look healthy and the buds looked healthy. I have seen a squirrel trying to eat them, but I thought squirrels hated alliums. Am I wrong about that maybe? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful. I was going to have a bumper crop this year, but something ate about 35 of the buds.
Thank you again.
Thank you for contacting Toronto Master Gardeners:
Alliums are bulbs with lovely buds and later flower heads. I have grown them for years and have never had any squirrel eat the bulbs or cut off the head of an allium. You do not mention where you live but that may give other possibilities. Deer, for instance, would only graze on allium if very hungry; deer, like most animals, do not like the unpleasant taste. Alliums contain sulfur compounds that the deer, chipmunks, voles, rabbits, rodents and of course squirrels do not like. Apparently elk, black bears and prairie dogs are the only animals I was able to find that eat allium bulbs. Which I do not believe is what is happening in your yard.
There are pests and fungus that affect alliums but none will cut off the head or bud of an allium and, as you mentioned, there is no evidence left on the ground.
My suggestion is to take a close look at the allium head where it is snapped off. Investigate if it was torn off, pulled off or cut off. That might provide more information on what is the cause. In the meantime I would place a tomato cage with plastic mesh on top and around the cage, to the still untouched alliums to protect them from having the heads removed.
Best of luck!