Cotyledons store food for the developing plant before true leaves appear and photosynthesis begins. As true leaves grow, cotyledons gradually die and drop off. Cutting off any plant's cotyledons generally is not a good idea but is occasionally necessary.

What happens if you remove the cotyledons?

Cotyledon removal resulted in reduced growth and leaf number per plant in young seedlings. ... The number of seeds per plant and, to a lesser extent, single-seed dry-weight were reduced by low N supply; consequently, oil yield per plant was reduced by 85%.

Can a seedling survive without cotyledon?

Death of seedlings without cotyledon removal mainly occurred in the first 33 days after seedling emergence for all our tested species. A possible reason why a high percentage of the seedlings died is that rainfall from 0 to 33 days was only 57.1 mm, whereas it was 164.2 mm from 33 to 70 days.