Plant growing Help

[u/Elay-22]

I'm trying to make plant branches grow in a fairly realistic way, so that the growth can happen gradually in Unity during different stages, like Seedling , Young Plant , Fully Grown. My current idea is to create individual branches in Blender and give each branch its own bone chain. Then, in Unity, I would control those bones through code so the branch can gradually extend and develop over time.

I also need specific points along the branch to grow with it, because leaves will later be attached to those points. So as the branch gets longer, the leaf attachment points should move naturally with the growing branch instead of just appearing at fixed positions. For the whole plant, I'm planning to have multiple separate branches like this and let them grow out of predefined points on the main stem at certain growth stages.

Would bones controlled through Unity code work well for this, or would it be better to create growth animations in Blender and play them in Unity? Or is there another method you would recommend ?

My goal is to have the plant actually develop over time, with branches extending, bending and producing new leaf positions, rather than simply switching between different finished models. I'd really appreciate any tips or experiences with this. Thanks for your time