These are from my early planting experiment. I planted these April 19 which is a full month earlier than we normally plant around here. Had a total of 61# from 12 slips planted in nothing but tilled clay. I had extended the front yard plot and hadn't had the chance to ammend the soil.
Ready for a couple days curing before storage. We pulled out the smaller ones to eat tonight.

Tater Monsters...........

I didn't get to plant any sweet taters this year.  Fill me in on curing and storing them.  I usually have enough for us for about a month and give a lot away.  We never have near the amount you have though, but I would LOVE to

Nice!
We had a COMPLETE failure this year!

Very neat.

The ones in the second photo....I'm not sure what to make of them.

I've been pleased with our sweet potatoes this year. I've only dug one hill so far, it produced a walmart grocery bag full. 5 more hills to go. I am probably going to wait till the end of sept to dig the rest. Other than freezing, is there any risk to leaving them in the ground too long?

We've found that about 120 days is our limit. After that I don't think there is much return for the extra time. Normally we plant on June 1 around here. That puts us digging about October 1 when it can start getting wet and cool. The longer in the ground the more likely they will stay too wet. We also have a bad problem with slugs that start munching on them the longer they are in the ground.

This year I planted on 4/19, 5/22 and then again on Jul5 5. I had some rotted sweet taters in storage that I threw on the mulch pile in June. It got pretty wet and darned if they didn't start producing slips. On July 5 I planted 10 of those slips just to see what will happen. I'll dig them on November 5 which is normally past our frost date.

I think I planted a few days before you, so I guess its time to get them out. This is the first time I've planted them and the wife was extremely happy. They are hard to beat for effort to return ratio, bugs weren't much of a problem, and they were planted in the cold cruel clay without so much as a hill.

Thanks for sharing,

BH

If you didn't plant in a hill be reeeelly careful on digging around the plant. Those suckers will dive straight into that hard pan and it is a beeeeach getting them out without breaking. You might try just digging one or two plants to see how the yield looks. You could dig some now, wait a couple weeks and dig somemore until frost sets in.

Sounds like you are looking over my shoulder.

They are more "hilled" now than when they were planted as the ground bulges beneath them. I remember digging them in my youth in the muck soils of south florida from what I teased my gardening neighbor looked like mayan temple mounds. I think she had the right idea.



Yield seems prettty good, I wouldn't really know what it should be. I am getting  well over 10lbs per hill. (15lbs out of last hill, including the weight of a 5 gallon bucket)

I am going to have to string them out till frost since I am short of space to dry and store them. They were planted as an after thought when my MIL asked if I would grow some for her.

This is the area where I plant my sweet taters in the front yard. They go between the blueberry bushes and the peppers on the left side. I till a row about 50' long and 6' wide. Then I pull all the loose dirt into a tall hill right in the middle of the 6'. Last year the hill was almost 2' tall, this year I reduced it to about 18" tall. The top of the hill is about 18"-24" wide. I plant two rows of slips on the top of the hill. I till it as early in the spring as I can when the dirt is dry. After the hill is built I cover it with 6mil black poly until time to plant last week of May. The poly keeps the dirt dry and helps keep the weeds down for a while.

tag.  I want to do this, and asparagus next year.