Grape Vine: Stunning New Growth in October [Gardening]

Sometimes I grow trees and plants, and they react exactly the opposite of how I thought they would behave.

Take my grapevine for instance.

At the end of July, the leaves were ripening and turning red, and falling off early. The vine did not produce any fruit this year. Last year it made one clump of grapes, so this year it must be recovering. Why was it dropping healthy leaves so early in the season? I guess it was too hot, and the whole vine became exhausted, and went into a summer dormancy.

Leaves like this one still clinging on seem to have a renewed flush of green. It's stopped turning red. The stem behind it has suddenly reawakened with a zeal to push out as many new leaves as possible. What's going on? Why wasn't it growing like this a month ago? It's October, and it's getting cold at night!

Here is the vine in its current state. I only has about four mature leaves on it, and several new buds are pushing out new leaves on all the vine tips.

Is it possible the vine had too much foliage for the roots to support, and that is why it decided to discard so much leaf mass in the summer? I'm still convinced it must be the temperatures. The black container the roots are growing in probably kept the roots a bit warmer than it prefers. Maybe the soil is having a drainage issue.

It's all a mystery to me.

Here are some past photos of the grapevine growing this past summer season, to document it's growth patterns.

Above: Grapevine: September 6, 2019. Looked like it was almost done losing its leaves. No signs of budding. Looks like it is becoming dormant. This year's new green shoots, like the one running up the fence post, look like they hardening off and becoming brown wood.

Above: Grapevine: August 13, 2019. Leaves are turning crisp around the edges. The leaf stems are brittle and almost falling off at the slightest touch. I'm using the leaves to mulch the nearby vegetable garden soil.

Above: Grapevine: August 8, 2019. The last new leaves one the vine tips are starting to mature. Other leaves are starting to ripen, crisp up, and fall off.

Above: Grapevine: July 18, 2019. The grapevine has reached maximum size with a full spread of leaves for the year. After this date, it seemed to start declining. Organic fertilizer was applied to the soil once each month during the growing season.

Above: Grapevine: June 18, 2019. Lots of healthy green leaves. Light colored leaves are beginning to take on deeper green tones as it builds up chlorophyll made from absorbing sunlight and nitrogen. Signs of insect damage are being remedied by removing caterpillars each morning, and nearby flowers to attract pollinators. No sprays were used. The vines are twining around old wood, and seem to be growing out in all the directions I anticipated and planned for when I did my winter pruning.

Above: Grapevine: June 1, 2019. It's near the end of Spring, and the temperatures are warm on most days in the 70's, but not hot. The vine will double in size over in only a few weeks.

Above: Grapevine: May 17, 2019. Caterpillar eggs have hatched. Grape leaves make a tasty meal. I use a stick to pick them off each morning, and I toss the bugs into the compost. Maybe a bird will find them for a delicious morning snack. Caterpillars can eat a few leaves in one night. Fortunately, the plant is able to grow plenty more leaves to replace the ones being lost. I doubt a colony of caterpillars can kill this plant with all the birds we have around here.

Above: Grapevine: April 23, 2019. When the tulips bloom, the first leaves emerge from the opened buds. This is a good moment to analyze which branches were pruned the best. Three branches formed the first leaves, which is a sign of apical dominance. Soon the caterpillar eggs will hatch, to feast on the tender young leaves. It's okay, I am willing to share my bounty with the living creatures in nature. The butterflies will repay me by helping my flowers to pollinate so they can set fruit and make seeds.

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That's about it. I guess this became a #gardenjournal2019 type of post. Thank you for viewing my photos. Hopefully it was a good learning experience, or brightened your day.

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