I am transplanting some large healthy strawberry plants with runners. Should these be removed before planting? If left on will they develope roots and grow when they contact the soil? It is my understanding if the runners are removed their will be less stress on the plant.
Leave the runners and they will develop roots on contact with soil. You can help them if you wish by putting a pot under it and push it into the dirt a bit. When you see good growth on the new plant then snip the runner to separate it from the parent plant. Or if in the garden just leave it alone and it will be fine and just keep on multiplying. Mine are running too so I need to find more pots.Even had a strawberry.
My strawberry plants make many babies. I have them in containers and a large raised bed. They are blooming already. I dug some up for a friend today. I put some plastic fencing over the big bed and screens over the other containers to keep the birds out of them. It will let pollinators in to them.
Big sky, I would remove them prior to transplanting. When you transplant a plant, the shock to the plant is great and they need 2-3 weeks to recover fully. In the case of transplanting a mother with attached runners and plantlets, the trauma is double because of the little attached plantlet. The mother plant has to work for two and the little plant has to work for itself to become stablished anew. In the big scheme of things, ultimately both mum and plantlet probably will survive; but the extra work that they must do may have a negative effect on future strawb production.
