Quote Originally Posted by batchit View Post
Not sure, but maybe they are digging up the actual plants after they have finished fruiting to set the next seasons plants. They will propagate the new plants from the runners.
I would agree with that as well.
When I was a teenager, I worked at a strawberry farm pulling thistles by hand that were in with the strawberry plants. Heavy leather gloves were a requirement, and wet soil.
All the strawberries were picked by hand, either you-pick-it or you paid more for someone else to pick them for you. I think the plants were ripped up every 5 years and new plants put in. So he used a rotation method so only 1/5 of the entire field was new plants at any one time.