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I have been growing an asparagus fern for a few months now, and its been doing well enough that I've split it into two pots back in the spring.enter image description here Recently, one of them, which I've situated in a sunny, east facing window, has been growing a couple of very thick and stiff stems that grow much larger than the rest of the plant.

Research I've done online all points to legginess when it reaches for sun, but as far as I can tell, there's no shortage of sunlight for this plant. I've pruned them back a couple of times for aesthetic reasons, but they continue to come back as new stalks. I'd rather remove these since they're the only parts of the plant that are so tall, but they are pretty stubborn. Is there a reason the keep growing?

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Fern asparagus (Asparagus setaceus) also known as Asparagus plumosus has strange kind of leaves which slowly develop from a new hard stem. Fully developed the stem becomes softer but unfortunately not shorter.

The leaves are actually leaf-like cladodes up to 7 mm long by 0.1 mm in diameter, which arise in clumps of up to 15 from the stem, making a fine, soft green fern-like foliage. Sharp barbed thorns occur on the stem.

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  • Thanks! Do you know if there's any reason they'd be so much taller than the rest? In the past couple days they've grown even more!
    – Toakwakal
    Commented Jul 19, 2022 at 19:18
  • When growing plants in a container the room for the roots very often is the limiting factor for size/growth. So you recently repotted your plants and perhaps you even used premium soil from the garden shop. You really care for your plants - they never miss water and the photo shows lots of light. All factors contributing to growth. If you want a slow growth, then don't be too generous.
    – Gyrfalcon
    Commented Jul 20, 2022 at 9:35

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