This is a picture of last years strawberries I planted. This was only 1 plant, now it is 3. I am pretty sure it didn't start from a runner but can't be absolutely certain. In the back is the third, much smaller one. The growth is 90% in the past month with most of it coming in the past 2 weeks. I am going to transplant it but I need to know if I can or should seperate the 3 or would it be better to leave them together and transplant into a larger enough container for the whole thing? They are Quinalts if that makes a difference. I know the roots are massively intertwined and some of them are on the surface of the bedding. Also, the crown is very high, maybe 1.5 inches above the soil as you can kind of see in the picture. It was not this way before and I need to know if I need to bury it to the point of new growth or simply leave as much of it exposed as there is now. Again, there are roots on the surface if this makes a difference. I do know this though, Quinalt Strawberries are tough plants. Last year I had deer eat everything off of them in full growth and these are the plants that came back. I thought for sure they were dead. moderator's note: added a more descriptive title to topic
After doing a lot more reading I am not sure it is gonna be worth it to transplant the full sized plant. It is only 1 year old and it only produced 3 fruit before the deer got it last year so I don't know. I want to try because it is still young but if it is not gonna produce much fruit I may just decide to let it grow and collect runner starts from it instead of doing all the work to try and get fruit from it. Can an older plant be used for runner starts and expect to get viable fruit producing plants from it?
