Tangy,
If you are only interested in foliage from this particular banana, it should be fine as long as you have them mulched to give the corm some protection. Below are pics of one mat progressed through 2 years of growth using my "lack of protection"... First pic shows what I started with in spring of 2006 after cutting pstems back to good cell structure in the middle of stem.
Spring '06
Summer (same mat, four months later)... White fence in back was removed / replaced that spring...
And then 3 months later:
End of season, 2006:
Summer 2007 same mat...
Same mat, yesterday...
Good luck in whatever method you decide to use...
Randy