If your outdoor environment is inadequate, you’ll need an indoor location with similar requirements (12 hours bright light and constant warm temperature and humidity). You’ll need a large planting container sufficient for its adult size, or be willing to transplant the banana into a larger pot whenever necessary. Always use a pot with a drainage hole in a location where water can drain well. Consider a dwarf variety if you don’t have sufficient indoor space. Use half the amount of fertilizer when growing a plant indoors, or cease entirely if you don’t have room for a larger plant. (This may be suitable for a houseplant you don’t intend to harvest fruit from). Some people break off the “bell” (the bunch of purple flower petals at the end) about 15 cm below the last female hand. That way the banana plant puts its energy and reserves into growing big bananas, and not into growing a long stalk. Commercial banana growers also remove some of the bottom female hands, so the remaining bananas grow bigger. Not everyone thinks that way, though. One grower commented that they never cut the flower off the bananas because the hummingbirds love them too much. The “Banana Bunchy Top Virus” is one of the most dangerous plant diseases.[29] Once infected, even a single sucker, all the plants that are connected (including the mother plant and all its suckers) will be infected and all the plants are stunted. It’s spread by a banana pest called “Banana Aphid”. These pests are slow and live in colonies and they can transmit the disease in hours. If the newly planted banana is accidentally damaged (e.g. hit by ball) or if the plant is growing weak, but the plant is still alive, simply cut the plant in half. The banana plant will regrow. Black spots appear on the skin and spread all over the ripe bananas. Is that reason to be concerned? Not at all. That’s just the fruit at the peak of ripeness.