Can you show pictures? What are you doing exactly? You are trying to grow rods by electrodeposition inside porous alumina, on one side of which you have your cathode and the other side of it is exposed to the solution?
Maybe you have grown too much, and you have grown rods inside the alumina but now they are full and the growth process has continued isotropically outside the alumina? In that case you can try to pass less charge (lower current or shorter time).