Ficus Potato Root

weirdowl

Hello,
Earlier today I repotted two ficus benjamina trees and everything looked good except that each of them had one really big, unproportional, short, potato looking root. I've only repotted them once before this and cut their tap roots then. The potato looking things were not there then. That was about 6 months ago. It's really weird, all the other roots look normal, having grown much longer. The roots in question just seem to have grown like a big swelling tumor. Can anyone tell me how to prevent this?, Or what causes it? Thanks

__________________
weirdowl

Advertisement

doody

Could they be the start of arial roots.

__________________
"What we see depends mainly on what we look for", because "Creation and art are defined only by the boundaries we confine ourselves"

both quotes written by authors unknown

bnsaijim

It's not an aerial root. They just seem to do that- they reach a certain point - I think when there is a growth spurt, i.e., during teh rainy periods or when a pot bound tree escapes and starts to root into the ground. They appear almost overnight.

I think that may be it, as they always seemed to appear during a period of heavy growth- some kind of super-efficient response for more nutrients... or a "storage mechanism"...

You could just cut them off... or you could just let it go and use it to form a base- they do eventualy all kind of mass together...

Aubrey16

I own a few different kinds of ficus benjamina and some of it's variations, and I have found a number of these potato-like things in their roots. Some of my trees have three or four of them, and they are kind of yellow-orange looking. I find them somewhat creepy, (I also don't like to touch seed pods, particularly ones with a holey or honeycombed appearance) , so I leave them in the root system. I would imagine that they are some type of nutrient or moisture storage system, so I'm always afraid that removing them could deprive the tree of what it needs. So, I believe that they, like most living things except assassin bugs, should only be eliminated if necessary.

weirdowl

Thanks to all.
They're staying for now. If I find anymore I'll probably disect one and see what it looks like inside.I'm very curious to see if its just like any other root. I'll post a pic if it's something unusual looking. Thanks again.

__________________
weirdowl

weirdowl

I think now that the problem may have been giving them too much superthrive throughout Spring and Summer. I read that a key active ingredient in superthrive promotes root development.

__________________
weirdowl