Does flowering hinder growth?

[rachelfanclub]

Hi all!
Posted this question yesterday under a different title but didn't get any love so thought I would try again.

A friendly neighbor recently let me take some cuttings from his cacti and, being a novice (I've learned a lot since then, in large from this forum ), I chose a pad from his Opuntia that looked like it already had some pups going. Nope, they were flowers. Whoops!

Today the first flower bloomed (photo below) and it is absolutely stunning. A few more are on their way. My question is: would cutting off the other flowers encourage the cactus to put more energy toward new growth?

Additional details: I took the cuttings on March 27 (first photo below), let them callous, then dusted with rooting hormone and planted in a DIY cactus mix that has been working well for me. There is some new growth appearing (see last photo) but I'm hoping to encourage as many pups as possible before the fall. I'm in Los Angeles, zone 10a.

Excited to hear what you guys think. Thanks so much!

[DaveW]

Succulent plants are a little different to garden plants. When rooting cuttings gardeners used to remove flowers and often many of the leaves since these tended to dehydrate woody type cuttings before they rooted. However our plants store ample supplies of water and a few flowers will not usually dehydrate them a great deal before they root.

[7george]

I wouldn't remove any buds or offsets from that pad. Maybe because for me blooming is more important than growing of a cactus. In this case I think the plant will decide itself if to keep or to drop some of the buds in order to provide sufficient resources for the new growth and in most cases flower buds fade. Don't forget that it still forming the root system underground. So leave it in "auto" position for this year.

[One Windowsill]

Having children or attempting to have children is energy and material intensive for virtually every species on Earth, including humans.

It is not just the water resources that the flower will use. Like removing the flowers from a young cherry tree, you ensure better growth and more cherries in subsequent years.