Fan growth cycles

[NatalieS]

So, I purchased my first Neo (falcata) in Dec '23, so I've had my plant only about 6 months, and I have zero experience growing anything in this alliance.

My question is, how many fans does a Neo typically grow in a typical growing cycle? When I got this plant it had many immature fans on it. In January, I noticed a few new roots starting so I repotted it and it was growing roots like mad in the first few months of the year while the immature fans appeared to grow out and mature.

A few weeks ago, I noticed 2 growths appearing, very slowly, at the bases of 2 of the new fans. I was hopeful that they were potentially spikes, but now I see more growths appearing at the bases of the latest fans, and a new round of roots has begun as well. I feel like it's impossible to tell from the size of the growths if they are spike or new fan, so I haven't included a pic, but would it be normal for roots/fans to grow every 6 months like this? Did I miss a blooming cycle perhaps?

Feel free to direct me to another thread if there is one already for this type of question!

[Jmoney]

new growths come out randomly. more obviously with good culture. the growth rate might be measured in how many leaves per year on the mature growths. faster growing varieties may produce several leaves a year, while slower-growing ones perhaps only 1-2.

for the slow-growing fukiran, some growers choose to remove the flower spikes so that the plant saves energy for new growths. anecdotally this does work. don't get me wrong, I love the flowers. but if you have enough neos to enjoy flowers...and you have some varieties that are primarily grown for their leaves...it becomes easy to remove flower spikes, especially on younger plants.

as for inducing flowers, you could chill it in the fall for a couple weeks and reduce watering. but I find that well-grown plants will just bloom their heads off in season so I don't bother with the chill.

[NatalieS]

Thanks so much for the tips - very helpful.

I definitely want to see blooms on this little guy, so I won't be removing any flower spikes