So I walked out to check a few things in the garden and noticed my two Razzmatazz muscadine grape hybrid vines are growing air roots.
Is this a sign of water stress perhaps?
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Internet says there harmless and often induced by winter injury. pile some dirt on and mulch it up. The more roots the better in my opinion. When I get home I will check my Razzmatazz see what it looks like,
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Well I’d say in my case no way it’s winter injury living only about 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. We had a mild winter except the Xmas outbreak.
These didn’t appear until the last few weeks I’d say. This is only the second year I’ve had them in the ground. Last year I was able to get full single cordon growth each vine and this year it had been fruiting.
By water stress I mean lack of water. I have been dry for the past 2 months only punctuated by a few days of rain. I occasionally water them.
You can tell from the paint pattern on the bark it has gained a lot of caliper since spring.
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I find it interesting that the birds are no longer eating the grapes… Or insects either.
I’m not eating them either as they’ve gone through a light freeze and are getting a bit moldy.
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Winter damage seems possible to me. Given your location, I would expect it has trouble going fully dormant.
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Not damage per se. Some trees never fully lose their leaves here and wait for new growth in spring to push them off like my baby teeth unfortunately!).
In last year’s MD winter the razzmatazz lost it’s leaves… It’s just too early.
It’s still getting into the 70’s and even 80’s after the first very brief and light freeze at the beginning of the month.
This is normal around here.
I was really just commenting on the lack of animal interest in a free meal. Perhaps they are just doing what they normally do this time of year and that usually doesn’t involve fruit… Maybe nest building…
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Out of interest, why do you paint the bark? I have never seen anyone do that.
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To try to limit any sunburn.
This is the second year in the ground. Last year I used grow tubes so the trunk was not exposed directly to sunlight.
I painted them in spring…
You can see the stretch marks from this years growth.
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In this case I think the air roots are due to being near the moist ground. They probably won’t do any harm if left alone.
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The vines are healthy, so I’m not worried. It was a hot, dry summer so I think perhaps it was the opposite and they were looking for more moisture.
Regardless of the why, it’s an interesting look for sure.
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Root damage and/or stem damage at the soil line is the usual cause of air roots. Have you checked to see if something might be eating the roots?
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It’s not above soil damage. They grew and fruited well this summer. The caliper of the trunks increased probably 3 fold from spring, so I think they are fine.
If something is happening below ground I don’t know.
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Here in southern Md, my 5 yr old Razz has lots of these air roots and I don’ think its from trunk or root damage but could well be looking for water as it gets hot and dry here in later summer often. Would likely make for easy rooting tho!
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