SU2
Omono
I've got a *lot* of bougies that I collected/propagated last year and am now working towards developing 'initial branching structure' so vigorous growth is my main horticultural aim right now, but it's often beset by bougies' tendency towards frequent, long-lasting flowering-phases.....or so I thought!
My current tech when a bougie starts developing flowers is to simply let the flowers get just long-enough that my 'precision sheers' can nip them off, so that is what I do, with the rationale that I want vegetative growth and that these flowering-phases are nothing but wasted time & resources......but I just started thinking something that's got me kind of embarrassed for having taken so long to conceive of- bougies' "flowers" are actually white, tiny, tubular protrusions from the center of what most think are the flowers, which in actuality are 'modified leaf-bracts' - given that bougies flower very profusely, and that 95%+ of that flowering-growth is fast-growing, leaf-sized flower-bracts, I've begun to think that maybe, since it's obviously taking resources to build those large clusters of bracts, that this period of flower development is actually something that's *good* for me in that it does induce branch-girth in a similar way to vegetative growth (I mean, it's generating canopy-mass at a serious rate)
With this realization, if it is on-point at least, it seems that the smartest approach to rapidly-growing a bougie's primary branch structure would be to let it grow its flowers for a while, like almost until they're fully-formed, then remove them as soon as flower-growth starts to slow (removing only flower-buds, no growing-tips or true leaves)
Any confirmation/refutation of my thoughts & intended course of action here would be hugely appreciated! I used to just prune-back my bougies when they started to flower, figuring it'd just push a new round of vegetative growth, but this was not only a hit/miss operation (a good amount of the time the resultant growth would be flowering as it grew-out..), it was also just knee-capping any efforts to generate branch-girth because it wasn't allowing enough unfettered growth. I used to be under the false impression that the tip of any bougie shoot that began flowering, would no longer grow vegetatively, ie for that branch to continue gaining girth it'd need a new leader, a new 'growing-tip' from a secondary shoot lower on that branch, I've since found this was false and that a flowering bougie shoot will continue growing from the same tip during & after flowering!
Thanks a ton for anything on this, it's such a minutiae thing for most people but I've got almost all bougies in my garden and they're all in-development so it's of big consequence to me to utilize the growing-time I have, am now thinking this method - let it grow-out flowers vigorously til their growth slows and then remove them immediately - will allow the greatest branch-thickening in the shortest time, presuming all horticultural practices are in-line of course!
My current tech when a bougie starts developing flowers is to simply let the flowers get just long-enough that my 'precision sheers' can nip them off, so that is what I do, with the rationale that I want vegetative growth and that these flowering-phases are nothing but wasted time & resources......but I just started thinking something that's got me kind of embarrassed for having taken so long to conceive of- bougies' "flowers" are actually white, tiny, tubular protrusions from the center of what most think are the flowers, which in actuality are 'modified leaf-bracts' - given that bougies flower very profusely, and that 95%+ of that flowering-growth is fast-growing, leaf-sized flower-bracts, I've begun to think that maybe, since it's obviously taking resources to build those large clusters of bracts, that this period of flower development is actually something that's *good* for me in that it does induce branch-girth in a similar way to vegetative growth (I mean, it's generating canopy-mass at a serious rate)
With this realization, if it is on-point at least, it seems that the smartest approach to rapidly-growing a bougie's primary branch structure would be to let it grow its flowers for a while, like almost until they're fully-formed, then remove them as soon as flower-growth starts to slow (removing only flower-buds, no growing-tips or true leaves)
Any confirmation/refutation of my thoughts & intended course of action here would be hugely appreciated! I used to just prune-back my bougies when they started to flower, figuring it'd just push a new round of vegetative growth, but this was not only a hit/miss operation (a good amount of the time the resultant growth would be flowering as it grew-out..), it was also just knee-capping any efforts to generate branch-girth because it wasn't allowing enough unfettered growth. I used to be under the false impression that the tip of any bougie shoot that began flowering, would no longer grow vegetatively, ie for that branch to continue gaining girth it'd need a new leader, a new 'growing-tip' from a secondary shoot lower on that branch, I've since found this was false and that a flowering bougie shoot will continue growing from the same tip during & after flowering!
Thanks a ton for anything on this, it's such a minutiae thing for most people but I've got almost all bougies in my garden and they're all in-development so it's of big consequence to me to utilize the growing-time I have, am now thinking this method - let it grow-out flowers vigorously til their growth slows and then remove them immediately - will allow the greatest branch-thickening in the shortest time, presuming all horticultural practices are in-line of course!
I would be foolish to share how they grow up here for a LOT of reasons 
)
