Thanks for the advice, all. I will leave the branch on for now. I know it's still young and has a long time to mature. I was just concerned about the size of it sucking up 'life' of the tree into a branch that would ultimately be removed. I do like the idea of thickening the trunk if it means I leave it on for now.

My plans were to do a repot early next spring and go from there. I like the look of a slightly bent trunk but it's hard to say what direction I would ultimately go with this early. I feel like a more upright approach would be best for this one, but we'll see how it develops over the next few years.

brandon wrote:

Thanks for the advice, all. I will leave the branch on for now. I know it's still young and has a long time to mature. I was just concerned about the size of it sucking up 'life' of the tree into a branch that would ultimately be removed. .

Read about sacrifice branches

brandon wrote:

I was just concerned about the size of it sucking up 'life' of the tree into a branch that would ultimately be removed. I do like the idea of thickening the trunk if it means I leave it on for now.

Branches and leaves do not suck up live. They are the organs providing the plant with energy and building capacity. Cut it off, and the roots will start sucking life at a rate higher than realistic for the leaves.

The roots feed the leaves, and the leaves feed the branches and roots. As leatherback said, leaves do not suck up life, they actually provide nutrients (Sugar) to the branches and trunk.. A sacrifice branch directly connected with the trunk, feeds the trunk/ thickens the trunk. It is called sacrifice because it does not correlate with the style of the tree .