Asparagus Fern Care Guide
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Feb 24, 2022
The asparagus fern is a popular and beautiful houseplant. Learn how to grow and care for this beautiful plant.
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Hi guys, welcome back to the contended plant. Today we are talking all about the asparagus fern
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I have this adorable little asparagus cetaceous here. It is so cute. It has this lacy, like growth that is this
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really pretty bright green color. So we're going to get into the care and how you grow this plant
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nice and happy. So this plant is an indoor plant depending on where you live. We like to have it
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as a house plant here in Washington State, but it's actually considered an invasive plant in Texas
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Florida, Hawaii, anywhere where they have really warm temperatures, this can be grown outside
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It can grow quite quickly. If you live somewhere where you get a deep, hard frost, this will not
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survive, and it will only be an annual. So this will grow and trail and get really bushy and grow
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super fast if you have it outdoors. If you have it indoors, it's going to grow a whole lot slower
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and it'll usually get about two feet in height. If you want it to be nice and bushy, you will need to
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keep pruning it back. It does want to trail, so it will kind of get leggy if you don't keep
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pruning it back to preserve that nice little shape of a mound. So despite its name, this is not
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actually a fern It has kind of a tuberous root structure and you can actually propagate it that way by dividing the tuber out So it actually called an asparagus fern because when it grows new stalks they kind of come up and look like a tiny little asparagus and then it bushes out as it reaches the full height
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So this plant does like moderate light. I wouldn't put it in a super bright area
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I will say if you don't have it in enough light, sometimes, and we just noticed this today, that it can get these little little
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yellow sections on its leaves and that's just telling us, hey, I'm not happy. I want a little bit more
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light. Now, if your asparagus fern starts to get brown, crispy edges, that means you've got it in
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way too much light and it wants to be moved back. If you have a super bushy, well-matured asparagus
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fern, you might notice that especially in the center of the plant, sometimes you can get the leaves
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that look a little brown or yellow. And that's just because those leaves are fully matured and they're done
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can just chop those down. So this plant can flower and it can also produce
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berries. The flowers are really pretty. They're just little white flowers and the berries you can actually plant and propagate. That's the only other way to
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propagate this plant besides dividing out the tuber So for watering you are going to want to water this plant every week or so during the summertime You definitely going to want to do the soil test and that is just where you put your finger in and you going to put it in about an inch and a half down
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And if it comes up with a bunch of moist soil on your finger, then it does not need to be watered, and I would just skip it
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If it does appear really dry, sometimes it can even get so dry that you think you've killed it
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Don't give up on it. You can usually water it and mist it, put it in some really good humidity, and it will
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will revive itself. So the asparagus fern does like to have fertilizer, just like any other plant
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you're going to fertilize it about once a month during the growing season, just to make sure it has
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nutrients in the soil. So for the soil, you can usually just pop this in regular potting soil
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with a little bit of extra pearlite. Something to keep in mind, you do want to make sure whatever
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pot you have it in does have a drainage hole because these will get root rot just like any other
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house plant if they're sitting in super wet, dense soil. So the asparagus fern is mildly toxic to
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pets and humans. If you were to ingest it, it would probably cause like vomiting, diarrhea
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Same with your pets. So you do want to make sure this is out of the reach of especially cats
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if they like to gnaw on the leaves there Don let your cat chew on it Another thing to note about this plant is it can get spider mites mealy bugs just like any other house plant You do want to make sure that you are checking for any little
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pests that are hanging in and around all the crevices and on the edges of these little lacy parts
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And if it does, then you're going to need to spray it with some insecticidal soap or a little bit
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of neem oil to treat it. As this plant grows and matures, it does have these little points on it
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that will kind of get sharp and spiky. So when you're handling it and it's big and bushy and you really want to prune it. Make sure you wear some gloves
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so you can avoid getting your fingers poked. Overall, this plant is fairly simple to care for. It does
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give you those little telltale signs if it needs better lighting. This does really well in
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bathrooms. You do want to make sure your bathroom is a fairly well-lit bathroom. It has a lot of bright
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and direct light coming in and out of it, but it will love the humidity of a bathroom. Overall
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this plant is fairly simple to care for and with the right care it should get nice and beautiful
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and bushy for your home it's very elegant i love the leaf structure on it it's so delicate and
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beautiful let me know if you guys have one of these plants also let me know if you have any
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questions down below please like and subscribe and we will see you next time at the contented plant bye
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