Yes, you will get new branches. It takes longer than few weeks.

I did pretty much the same thing with a bunch of 7 to 8 week old seedlings---several obesums and a couple of arabicums....I used an Exacto knife. One of my obesum "whack" jobs responded in about a week, it now has 2 nicely developing side branches off the main stem. Other obesums that I cut at the same time took more like 2 or 3 weeks to show any new growth, while a few show no new growth yet. Of the arabicums, one has 4 branches starting, one looks like it has 2 new shoots, a couple others have nothing. On the other hand, I've got a few arabicums (mixed Saudi) branching all on their own, without being cut--these were sown May 28 and are barely 1 and 1/2 inches tall.

Maybe try cutting several more seedlings if you have lots to work with. It seems to be working to some degree for me, though I'm giving it more time--at least another week or so.

Mike in MN

Thanks for the input you guys. I have just mainly been seeing people say they get results within a couple weeks so I figured I was just doing something wrong.

I've got 25ish seedlings around 5 months old now, around 3-4 inches tall. I went ahead and tried it on two more that are starting to get a little "leggy." About half of my others ones are throwing off several branches all on their own. I know most of my knowledge about a. obesums come from this forum so I'll try and keep updating this in case anyone now or in the future is curious.

Eric

Can I cut the top (w. the only 5 leaves and no other branches) to promote branching or will the plant die?

I've read a few people cutting it fairly young I believe even younger than five leaves and they were able to get branching. If it were me I'd wait until the plant gets some more leaves because the plant may start branching on its own. If you have several others or just feel like experimenting I doubt it would kill the plant though.

I got this plant in 2004 as a seedling and I don't remember ever having seen more than 5 leaves. It's about 22" tall now.