I suggest you leave well alone till long after fruiting is finished. They
probably flowered so well because they were crowded. Given totally ideal
conditions many plants will make masses of growth and few flowers. The ants
will not be a problem.
Best Wishes
"hjl" wrote in message
om...
hi group,

i have a few plants that i transplanted into clay pots 6 weeks ago:
3 alpine strawberries in a 12" azalea pot (height is 3/4 of
diameter)
combo of herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage) in a 10" standard
pot

i checked under the pot the other day because i saw ants crawling
around them & noticed that some roots were sticking out of the
drainage holes. i didn't realize that these guys would grow so FAST!
i chose these pot sizes based on suggestions from some book sources.
one book i read told me to plant 3 alpine strawberries in a 12" azalea
pot. another book told me that the herbs need minimum 9" pot depth.
all plants seem healthy & happy for now.

the alpine strawberries are very bushy & have just begun to flower.
my question is: should i transplant the strawberries into a deeper &
wider pot now or should i wait until they've finished giving fruit?

also, i think it's possible that the 3 strawberry plants are too
crowded in together. if i transplant them, should i take the 3 plants
apart & plant them farther apart? i'll probably end up tearing some
of the roots when i separate them from eachother.... but as they are
now, they're very cramped.

and... as for the herbs, i have the same questions. should i
transplant now? and should i separate them?

now, the ants are another problem... i have the pots sitting on clay
saucers. and where the pot meets the dish, there are ants running
about. there are ants in the pots, also, but not as many. the ant
problem seems to be love the strawberry plants, in particular. what
can i do about these ants?

thanks for your help!
-hj