| Well yes it does. First might I again recommend a book called Ficus The Exotic Bonsai by Jerry Meislik. Jerry used to frequent this forum but because of various policy changes here I believe he moved on. But it is a very good book for Ficus'. According to him he believes this to be the best species of ficus to grow indoors for a number of reasons. It isn't as tempermental as other ficus' and tends not to suffer from leaf drop nearly as bad as most ficus' also he mentions that when these trees are healthy and growing they are apparently one of the most vigorous growers. The only down side he mentions is that don't make for really good small bonsai because of their larger leaf size but over all his favorite. Yes these trees can produce aeriel roots, but the there are some things about growing a banyan style you will need to consider. Aeriel roots tend to thicken up much more than the rest of the tree as soon as they hit the soil and can start taking in nurishment for themselves. As these trees age it can be difficult to tell which is the main trunk and which is the "banyan roots". If you are cool with that then it is just a matter of picking the right time to focus on growing them and do it. It takes high humidity and low light conditiions under the canopy to produce aeriel roots. It also takes a healthy tree and a tree that is growing vigorously. Since you are not in a tropical climate it will take some timing and patience to get them going because your growing season is not as long as the ficus' natural ideal growing conditions and this is your first time doing it so it may not be succesful the first time around. If this were me we're talking about for the rest of this year I would focus my efforts on reading and caring for the tree. It sounds to me that you recently picked this tree up so you really may not know the over all condition of this tree. That mostly being the kind of care it recieved before you had it and where it is at in it over all growth. Is it root bound. Has it been fed properly. Was it growing indoors or outside under full sun..... Once you have established that the tree is doing just fine and you see the tree really taking off in it's growth then is the time to act. You see banyan roots take alot of energy away form the tree's efforts to grow a healthy canopy. If you try to grow banyan roots and fail it can be a bit of a set back in the over all health of the tree in that it has just wasted that energy of growing upwardly and out to growing back to the ground. So if that is the case you may want to take a year off let the tree get back it's vigour and try the following year. I know this was a lot to read and I didn't exactly tell you how to grow them but that is really to encourage you to read more for yourself. Can I also suggest to look for any local bonsai club in your area. If you have a club in your area that has been there for any time I can guarantee you will find a wealth of experience and information. Good luck again. -G
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