What is my Neo doing?

[camille1585]

I got this Neo 'shutennu' a year ago. Last october it started growing the growth you see in the picture. Then after a few weeks it suddenly stopped and didn't do anything all winter long. A few weeks ago it started growing again, but only a very very little bit. I only noticed that it grew by comparing it with a photo from October!
So is that a growth or a spike??? And why is it so slow? In the meantime it's grown plenty of new growths, that too me looked different than this. And plenty of new roots too.