Yeah they will shrivel to nothing in dry air when they are all white and fuzzy. If you want to keep them,I'd advise cutting a drinking straw to lengths suitable to guide the the roots into the hydroton. Once they get down in there they should start hardening off and looking more woody before too long. Previous to slipping the cut straw pieces in place,I would also advise cutting a slice all the way from top to bottom of each one. This will make it possible to remove them later. Also the ficus needs to be back in the bag to provide the necessary humidity to continue aerial growth for now. Hope that made sense! lol

@JMJ 4Life Really sorry to learn about your tree. I assume some part of the root mass is fused, so the soil/root mass remains intact like so: If the answer is yes, unpot the plant and set the root/soil mass on a stack of newspapers, rags, old towels, dry sponges - something that will PULL excess water from the soil. Allow it to rest on the wicking material for an hour or two before returning it to the pot it fits. Use a wooden "tell" to "tell" you when it's time to water, because with no water loss from foliage, the plant will require very little water. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips in order to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions - which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma and creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell' (more reliable than a 'moisture meter'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) works better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half or in several pieces, depending on how deep your pots are. Sharpen both ends of each tell in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell's tip comes out nearly dry. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al

Does the picture illustrate where the tree WAS, or where it is now? The tree is shedding foliage as a drought response, but that doesn't necessarily mean that watering more is any sort of solution. A tree with the foliage mass as large as that in the picture needs a larger root system than even a skilled gardener who knows how to root prune can pack into 30 gallons, and if the previous owner is any sort of grower, he/she KNEW that before the tree was sold and should have done what is necessary to ensure what you're about to endure wouldn't happen. If you keep the tree, you have 2 options. You can keep the soil damp but not wet and let nature take its course (the plant absorbs water most efficiently when the soil is barely damp. The urge to water when the plant is suffering from drought is strong, but remember that over-watering increases the severity of a drought response - doesn't alleviate it. As nature takes its course, the tree will shed leaves and branches until it reaches the point that the root system CAN support the canopy. The reason this is happening is because the plant's main lifeline (the roots that were in the soil) has been severed. The problem with allowing the tree to have control over which branches are shed is in the fact that the tree will shed the branches doing it the least amount of good, which are probably going to be important to the plant's appearance. The other option is for you or someone who understands pruning and structure to remove enough of the canopy that the roots are able to support what remains. That would be my choice because I get to decide what the tree looks like if I have to remove half of the branches. One way or another, the tree is going to balance the root to shoot ratio. Either you take control or let the tree have control. If the pot is partially buried in soil, and the soil the pot is in allows free drainage into the earth, it's almost impossible to over-water - unless the soil the pot is in is very coarse. I'll emphasize again that if you bought the tree from a pro grower, there was an obligation to explain to you what I just did, or to prune the canopy appropriately before you took delivery of the plant. Al

Another name for your tree is "weeping fig" so it is probably just doing that. It will grow upwards when it becomes vigorous and you can help it by pruning away lateral growths. Maybe stake and train the top leader.