Ficus Tree Question

Question

I am growing 3 Ficus trees and one day all my trees froze. So I think they all died, but I saw branches from the Ficus tree growing out of the ground. The bark is white and cracked. So I was wondering if ripping the white dead bark off of my Ficus tree would help the branches start to grow on the tree instead of growing under the ground, because I do not want my Ficus tree to turn into a bush. So how can I make it grow into a tree or is it doomed to be a bush?

Answer 1

No, removing the bark will not help. It is likely that the above ground growth died in the cold but the roots survived because they were insulated by the soil. If the above growth is brittle and breaks easily, there is nothing you can do to bring it back. The roots are now trying to regrow through suckers. You can groom one of the suckers into being a tree shape and remove the others, but it will take quite some time for that one to gain any real size.