I wouldn't divide this year....too early in the life of the plant. And it depends somewhat on your expectations. Do you want the plants to be merely ornamental or productive as well? One factor will need to take precedence.

you should divide in a big way. overcrowded strawberry plants will be more subject to disease and produce poorly. strawberry plants are well established within a couple of months.

Odd then that commercial strawberry fields here do not routinely divide their plants for several years.......and they remain highly productive. And everbearing or day neutral varieties may never need division as the crowns seldom enlarge much so just separate runners to replace the mother plants when they age beyond optimum productivity (3-4 years, max).

I am interested to know which type of strawberry you planted, and where (not in pots?) I have a difficult time keeping strawberries alive through the summer

Sorry, just noticed that you may be in California. I'm in S FL and it is so very wet and humid in the summer.

I was also surprised by the advocate for dividing strawberries. Never heard of that before. They're increased by potting up the runners a gg said.

Once the new - baby - plants have roots you can divide and move them. Lucky you that they are doing so good.

gg, It would be nice for them to be more producive but I want more plants out of them too. Getting actual berries right now isn't such a concern. I've been getting rid of the flowers constsantly because of that. I am okay with waiting a year or even two years for fruits.

Some of them do not produce runners. I have a mixture of them such as alpine soul, toscana, tristan and berri basket pinks. The first 3 do not produce runners and I think the only way to get more plants is to divide or grow by seed.

Certainly remove the runners, if produced, after they root but that isn't what I understand by dividing. To me dividing is splitting the parent plant through the crown. I think some of us assumed you were talking about 'regular' strawberries since we weren't told these were non running types. Hence the differences in opinion.