You may find that some of the leaves, which, over winter, had been supporting one other or were supported by the frame of the greenhouse, begin to droop. Any wind will not help matters either. The solution is to cut back these leaves close to the stem and hope that your prized banana will do its best to send up new stronger leaves once Spring truly arrives.

Eventually, when any danger of frost is past, planting Bananas in the soil can take place. You will now need to enlarge and enrich your temporary planting hole. Move the plant out of the way. Make the hole about twice as large as it was before. You will now have a hole and a pile of soil surrounding the hole. Mix about 25 litres of blended farmyard manure (if available) and an equal amount of home made compost into the bottom of the hole and the surrounding soil. Test the depth of the hole by placing your plant in the hole. You want the plant to be slightly below the surrounding soil level. When you have finished planting Ensete Ventricosum, you want it to be sitting in a slight crater so that when you water the plant the water stays by the base of the plant. Otherwise the majority of water simply drains away to the surrounding plants.

If the plant is required for the following year, and this is the way to get large plants, dig out before the first frosts, and pot up in a pot/tub just big enough to accommodate the root ball. Use free draining compost that is just moist. If brought into a heated conservatory, carry on growing on the dry side, or if in an unheated greenhouse cut the leaves off at the stem and leave dry, but in a light airy position.  After over wintering in an unheated greenhouse, watch for signs of growth, and give a little water. Once growing strongly water and feed as for normal summer conditions. Always use tepid water up to 30C to keep the banana growing, and keep cool to avoid leggy weak growth. Once Spring arrives, simply start the whole process off again and as your plant is in its second year it will reach about 2 metres in height.