It may have done all of its "growing" for the year by the time you bought it, especially if it was held in a propagation house or overwintering house early in the season and came out of dormancy ahead of time, or if it was shipped in from a nursery in a much warmer climate with earlier seasons, such as from CA. If it were earlier in the year, June or early July, I would say fertilize it to get it going, but it's too late for that in Zone 5. It will probably just sit the rest of the year until the leaves drop. It is, no doubt, growing roots, which you can't see, but which is just as important, if not more so, than top growth.

It looks basically healthy, keep it watered well until the ground freezes up, and it should take off like a rocket next year. I would definitely plan on fertilizing in the spring.

I agree with denninmi,it looks healthy and though it is just sitting there it is laying down a lot of roots.I have seen the same thing with some of my grape plants that I rooted as cuttings in january.they had put forth 18 to 24 inches of top growth from Jan til May and when I put them out they pretty much sat there but looked green and healthy. The next year when I dug them to put them out in their permanent positions they where extremely hard to dig out as the roots had gone 2 to 3 feet in all directions! Just wait and see, next year it will grow so much you won't know what to do!

Glenn

Super. Can't wait to see what it does next year then.

How often should I water it normally? Also, what do you fertilize grape plants with?

Thanks again for the feedback.

iamzvonko,for me at my property I have very good soil and do not add any fertilizer nor any water......actually that may be a bit of a lie as I did give a few 2nd year cuttings a boost with some chicken manure tea.But for the most part I just let the grass grow and mow around them.From what I have seen with grape roots is if they need it they go looking for it.I have close to 200 or so cuttings of various varieties that i just stuck into some fresh till back in mid may and did not water them in or gave them any water at all and about 90% (lost a hand full)took off growing.
As long as there is moisture in the soil I wouldn't bother worrying about watering.I think a lot of people kill their grapes by loving them too much.If you are in zone 5? like me too much fertilizer can make them grow too vigorously and not harden the new wood before winter and you can expect a lot of die back, in my opinion from what I have seen. What varieties are you growing?

glenn10 - Yes, I'm in zone 5 but we've had an extremely hot summer with very little rain. I remembered reading somewhere that I shouldn't water grapes too much so I haven't but I was starting to worry.

Anyway, you are WAY ahead of me with this. I only have the one grape plant and I couldn't even tell you exactly what it is other than white seedless. It was an impulse buy from one of the home improvement super stores. Just wanted to see if I could grow grapes.

Just wanted to follow up on this one. The temps cooled down in the last few weeks and I notice the grape plant has several new leaves. Yesss!