Is this leggy or normal? I think the stems are really long and there arent any leaves at the bottom. How can I make the plant more bushy?


I seem to be having a problem with my birds nest fern as well. The leaves/fronds arent growing much bigger and fanning out nicely. There are just tons of new little fronds that stick out everywhere. I do water about once a week when the top inch soil is dry and also stuck a couple of those green fertilizer sticks that look like chalk once every 30 days. No idea what I'm doing wrong here, any suggestions? Thanks!

#1 Too much fertilizer! A Birds nest fern would do very well with a half strength feeding from a water soluble fertilizer. Perhaps twice a year. Your plant is getting too much nitrogen that is producing all the extra fronds!!
#2 it needs to stay evenly moist. In my experience they do not like to go dry. I have a medium sized one underlights and I water it every three or four days.
I can't help with the leggy plant but some one will offer advice soon.

Your Arrow Head is meant to be more of a hanging plant not up rite, how much sun are the 2 getting? I was advised many years ago not to use the fertilizer sticks,now I'm having a senior moment as to why they are bad, anyway, I agree with Bill to much fertilizer.

The arrowhead (Syngonium) will mostly grow at the tips. So cutting the tips and rooting them and adding them to the pot will give you more 'tips' (branches). I haven't had one for many years but I expect that brighter light would give it a shorter more dense habit. This plant is going to flop over eventually as the stems are soft.

Arrowhead vine is just that, a vine. Only by propagating often & starting over with juvenile foliage can one have a "bushy" appearance.
Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum)

Birdnest fern looks lovely! Each crop of new leaves will be bigger. Agree that it will not do well if the soil dries.
Bird's Nest Fern (Asplenium nidus)

I've not had any positive experiences from fertilizer sticks. A mild dose of liquid fertilizer at every-other watering would probably yield much better results by supplying an even amount of fert throughout the root zone, not just in 1 spot.

Your pretty birds nest makes me miss the one I used to have before I moved across country! Very nice! In my experience the fertilizer sticks just get mushy in the soil and didn't seem to do anything for my plants. If you were to pull your plant out of the pot (don't pull it out to look, lol) you would probably see a green ball of mush in the soil. I vote yes on the water soluble fertilizer too!

BigBill said:#1 Too much fertilizer! A Birds nest fern would do very well with a half strength feeding from a water soluble fertilizer. Perhaps twice a year. Your plant is getting too much nitrogen that is producing all the extra fronds!!
#2 it needs to stay evenly moist. In my experience they do not like to go dry. I have a medium sized one underlights and I water it every three or four days.
I can't help with the leggy plant but some one will offer advice soon.

omg thank you so much! i never knew nitrogen would do this. i never knew those stick fertilizers were this bad. do i try removing them? i have them in all my houseplants now (fiddle leaf fig, peperomia, ZZ, devil's ivy, xanthosoma, monstera adasonii, snakeplant), and does that mean all my other plants would be coming up with small leaves?? which sound like it should be a good thing? lol

Christine said:Your Arrow Head is meant to be more of a hanging plant not up rite, how much sun are the 2 getting? I was advised many years ago not to use the fertilizer sticks,now I'm having a senior moment as to why they are bad, anyway, I agree with Bill to much fertilizer.

i dont know about the arrowhead being a hanging plant but when i bought it from IKEA beginning of the year it was rather bushy and the growth seemed really nice and even with lots of leaves at the bottom. just wondering whether it was possible to recreate that "look" again. this is how it looks at the beginning :



not sure whether you can see this, i didnt take a closeup shot so i had to zoom in but it had very even growths.

the arrowhead is getting less sun than the birds nest, probably semi shade?

sallyg said:The arrowhead (Syngonium) will mostly grow at the tips. So cutting the tips and rooting them and adding them to the pot will give you more 'tips' (branches). I haven't had one for many years but I expect that brighter light would give it a shorter more dense habit. This plant is going to flop over eventually as the stems are soft.

agree, im thinking of moving it to a brighter spot. so far none of those stems have flopped over yet! they've been like this for almost a year, with new leaves coming out pretty slowly. some of those leaves also never really become big before turning yellow, so i just cut them off.

purpleinopp said:Arrowhead vine is just that, a vine. Only by propagating often & starting over with juvenile foliage can one have a "bushy" appearance.
Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum)

Birdnest fern looks lovely! Each crop of new leaves will be bigger. Agree that it will not do well if the soil dries.
Bird's Nest Fern (Asplenium nidus)

I've not had any positive experiences from fertilizer sticks. A mild dose of liquid fertilizer at every-other watering would probably yield much better results by supplying an even amount of fert throughout the root zone, not just in 1 spot.

thank you! the new fronds are coming out very quickly and they're wiry with odd shapes (not tapered at the end) and they're sticking out everywhere. im not sure whether they will fan out nicely in time to come but now they just look like a very bad haircut lol. im thinking of switching to liquid fertilizer too. i've used a liquid type from daiso (japanese dollar shop) but its getting quite expensive since its a diluted kind where you just water with it as opposed to adding a few drops. what percentage of NPK do you normally use for houseplants?

AlyssaBlue said:Your pretty birds nest makes me miss the one I used to have before I moved across country! Very nice! In my experience the fertilizer sticks just get mushy in the soil and didn't seem to do anything for my plants. If you were to pull your plant out of the pot (don't pull it out to look, lol) you would probably see a green ball of mush in the soil. I vote yes on the water soluble fertilizer too!

ugh i didnt think they were this bad because it seems really convenient for lazy people like me lol. please share the kind of fertilizer you use, im a noob when it comes to fertilizing my plants!

Your plant came from Ikea and shortly before that was in a greenhouse with ideal conditions. No offense but most homes are not as bright as what the plants were produced in. So they change when grown at home. A light that is bright enough for people to function in a home is not 'bright' in a plant opinion.

Fertilizer is not as important as you may think. Optimum light is what supplies the energy to plants. Without enough light, they will never use the fertilizer anyway. Especially in winter, when plants are getting even less light typically, so don't fertilize at all. Fertilizer will not shorten the stems or make it more bushy.

sallyg said:Your plant came from Ikea and shortly before that was in a greenhouse with ideal conditions. No offense but most homes are not as bright as what the plants were produced in. So they change when grown at home. A light that is bright enough for people to function in a home is not 'bright' in a plant opinion.

Fertilizer is not as important as you may think. Optimum light is what supplies the energy to plants. Without enough light, they will never use the fertilizer anyway. Especially in winter, when plants are getting even less light typically, so don't fertilize at all. Fertilizer will not shorten the stems or make it more bushy.

these all make sense, maybe thats why fertilizer isnt doing much. im really a noob when it comes to plants. i've always felt as long as i dont kill them im doing a great job haha, but theres still so much to learn. there isnt any other spot near my home that would provide good lighting and i dont like my window area getting too cluttered.

You need to decide if you want to grow plants or have uncluttered windows! If your plants are indoors then chances are that you can't have both.

I've gone for entire decades without fertilizing any of my plants. It's not necessary for them to stay alive, and when plants do grow at their maximum pace, it's a constant job to keep trimming them. Something I enjoy, most of the time, but many would not. A more sedate pace of growth is usually more appreciated for a houseplant. But regardless of the pace of growth, even slow-growing plants can reach a point where their appearance is no longer appealing to their owner, as you have discovered with your arrowhead vine. Newly-planted vine cuttings, like your pot of arrowhead, rarely retain an upright, bush appearance for long. Hoping it will is like hoping a baby won't grow up. It's just not possible for it to stay a juvenile indefinitely. But unlike people, most plants can be manipulated to retain that appearance by trimming and propagating. Possible for arrowhead vine, but not birdnest fern.

The links I posted have many pics of each plant, which will give you an idea of what they *could* do in an ideal environment, and what is generally a normal appearance. Most/many pics have (optional) captions, which can help explain why each photograph was shared, and/or what the photographer is trying to show.

There are also other database entries in the database on this site for various cultivars of each species that can offer more pics.

purpleinopp said:I've gone for entire decades without fertilizing any of my plants. It's not necessary for them to stay alive, and when plants do grow at their maximum pace, it's a constant job to keep trimming them. Something I enjoy, most of the time, but many would not. A more sedate pace of growth is usually more appreciated for a houseplant. But regardless of the pace of growth, even slow-growing plants can reach a point where their appearance is no longer appealing to their owner, as you have discovered with your arrowhead vine. Newly-planted vine cuttings, like your pot of arrowhead, rarely retain an upright, bush appearance for long. Hoping it will is like hoping a baby won't grow up. It's just not possible for it to stay a juvenile indefinitely. But unlike people, most plants can be manipulated to retain that appearance by trimming and propagating. Possible for arrowhead vine, but not birdnest fern.

The links I posted have many pics of each plant, which will give you an idea of what they *could* do in an ideal environment, and what is generally a normal appearance. Most/many pics have (optional) captions, which can help explain why each photograph was shared, and/or what the photographer is trying to show.

There are also other database entries in the database on this site for various cultivars of each species that can offer more pics.

thanks for pointing me to the database, i tried looking but couldnt see what the stems looked like for most of them as they were all closeup of the leaves. i tried to google and was probably gearing more towards these, short and bushy :





if i propagate them, do i just cut off a couple of leaves, root them in water like you would for mint and then stick them back into my existing plant? thanks!

You have receipted lots of good advice here.

As Tiffany has suggested, fertilizing in general is vastly overrated and can be skipped altogether in most instances. More specifically, fertilizer sticks tend to create fertilizer "hot spots" where they are inserted and that can burn tender roots. If possible, do try to remove any that you have already inserted.

How is your Bird's Nest Fern potted? Is it still in its original plastic pot? Is it possible that water is accumulating in the bottom of the brass planter? How it is planted will have an effect on how it should be watered.

Kaylenew, you're right. I'm so sorry, my bad. I've been so obsessed with documenting the different shape of the juvenile vs. mature-growth leaves over the past years that I have not put any pics of stems besides this one:


I usually try to document more aspects of a plant and you are right, that entry does not have enough pics of the other features beyond the gorgeous leaves. I'll take more pics and add them to the database when I get a chance, hopefully this weekend.

This one shows the little root nubs that form at the nodes. (A node being where a leaf attaches to stem.) If they make contact with water or soil, the root nubs will grow into actual roots. A cutting should have at least 1 leaf and a node with noticeable aerial root nubs that look plump and healthy, and ready to grow into roots.


Your plant does not look like the stems have grown enough to yield cuttings, but if there are quite a few of them and you see some root nubs, there's no harm at all in trying. At worst, the cutting could fail to take root. The stump from which it was cut will grow a new vine soon to replace what was cut.

Those tall stems will eventually bend over as it becomes heavy with new leaf growth. My syngonium started out as a 6" pot. As it bent over, it rerooted itself in the surrounding soil and became what it is today, 6 years later, 30" across.

WillC said:You have receipted lots of good advice here.

As Tiffany has suggested, fertilizing in general is vastly overrated and can be skipped altogether in most instances. More specifically, fertilizer sticks tend to create fertilizer "hot spots" where they are inserted and that can burn tender roots. If possible, do try to remove any that you have already inserted.

How is your Bird's Nest Fern potted? Is it still in its original plastic pot? Is it possible that water is accumulating in the bottom of the brass planter? How it is planted will have an effect on how it should be watered.

would you suggest any other way to use up the fertilizer sticks? i already bought quite a few. do you think i could possibly chop them up and scatter around the soil so there wont be any "hot spots"?

my birds nest fern is not in the original plastic pot. i repotted it a few months back and im using a ceramic pot now. its gold painted hence looks like brass maybe but isnt. i dont think water is accumulating. there are a couple of holes at the bottom of the pot so water should be able to flow freely.

purpleinopp said:Kaylenew, you're right. I'm so sorry, my bad. I've been so obsessed with documenting the different shape of the juvenile vs. mature-growth leaves over the past years that I have not put any pics of stems besides this one:

• Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum)
• Uploaded by purpleinopp

I usually try to document more aspects of a plant and you are right, that entry does not have enough pics of the other features beyond the gorgeous leaves. I'll take more pics and add them to the database when I get a chance, hopefully this weekend.

This one shows the little root nubs that form at the nodes. (A node being where a leaf attaches to stem.) If they make contact with water or soil, the root nubs will grow into actual roots. A cutting should have at least 1 leaf and a node with noticeable aerial root nubs that look plump and healthy, and ready to grow into roots.

• Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum)
• Uploaded by Hagbard

Your plant does not look like the stems have grown enough to yield cuttings, but if there are quite a few of them and you see some root nubs, there's no harm at all in trying. At worst, the cutting could fail to take root. The stump from which it was cut will grow a new vine soon to replace what was cut.

no worries, and thank you in advance for the pics. i have no idea what root nubs are, but i'll probably take a close up shot of the stem later and maybe i can ask you a few more questions if you dont mind! im really keen to propagate some.

ShadyGreenThumb said:Those tall stems will eventually bend over as it becomes heavy with new leaf growth. My syngonium started out as a 6" pot. As it bent over, it rerooted itself in the surrounding soil and became what it is today, 6 years later, 30" across.

• Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum)
• Uploaded by ShadyGreenThumb

oh wow your plant is really pretty! i love the shade of pink. i wished mine would look like this but my pot is still rather small as of now so unless i repot it theres no way it would bend over and reroot itself.

Your plant leaves will still bend over. But it will vine like in the other photos. That's it's nature. You can't see it very well. but there is a rogue vine towards the rear right about 25" long heading into the flowerbed behind it. I would love if this plant got longer. But for some reason, it never vines past the table which btw, the base has crumbled. The table top sits on bricks now.

Yes, chopping and spreading the fertilizer sticks is a better alternative. But fertilizer of any kind is overrated and not necessary with you plants. I suggest you skip it altogether.

Your Boston Fern needs to stay in moderately damp soil, but depending on how you repotted, it may be easy to inadvertently keep the soil too wet for too long and deprive the roots of oxygen. Remove any soil you added to the top of the original rootball. Then, allow the surface of the rootball to get almost but not quite dry before watering.

Cheryl, does your plant go dormant over winter, or do you bring it inside?