04-13-2014, 04:24 AM
Some years back we rented a cottage at an orchid nursery on north shore Maui where we could temporarily keep our nursery stock on some of their unused outside plant benches. The benches were built on top of an extensive and probably pretty expensive concrete slab with gutters and walkways. At one time it had been a beautiful nursery setup. Across a driveway from the slab they had planted a row of Ficus benjamina as a windbreak from the strong winds of the Ha'iku area. The trees were about 15-20' tall at the time and had developed a wide ranging network of intertwining roots crawling across top of the ground. The roots extended above the ground like 6-12" dorsal fins on fish, making it impossible to use the driveway and even difficult to walk in the area. The roots were in the process of breaking up the bench slab, no problem. The trees were hosts for some kind of gall disease (I've noticed some of this locally) and for some reason were also infested with millipedes. So be very careful if you choose to plant a Ficus and ensure that you have a large area that does not have anything of value near it. As seekir points out, even an acre may not be enough for some Ficus species.