OK, I think they're actually a really easy crop to grow. Last year, I had a fantastic crop, about 2 bushels from 15 plants, and when I was reworking the ground a few weeks back to plant peas and fava beans, I found the frozen, mushy remains of at least 12 big sweets I never found when I was digging last fall - that was a bummer. Some of the keys -- loose, sandy soil, lots of water, lots of fertilizer. Here in Michigan, I use black plastic because we need the extra heat, but that isn't an issue in Georgia. Last summer was very, very dry for us (but nothing like you're going through in the Southeast). I watered my garden very deeply once a week, letting the sprinklers run for 4 to 5 hours, which probably put on 2 to 3 inches of water. And, I fertilized 4 times -- early June, mid June, early July, and mid-late July, with Bayer Advanced all-purpose fertilizer, which has a time-release formula. Because I was planting through black plastic, I didn't hill them up -- never have done this with sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, for that matter. And yes, I would say about 10 potatoes per plant was what I got last year, or close to that, maybe more like 8, I'm not really sure. A lot of mine were what I would call a "jumbo" -- really big, like the biggest ones you'd ever find in the supermarket, if not larger. One was so big it was almost scary -- I bet it was 2 1/2 lbs.

I only did about 10 feet of "flat sweet potatoes." I've had interaction with some who tell me that hilling is unnecessary, especially in our warm summer climate. Well, I see that they produce okay without the hill. But you are correct about difficulty in digging as well as breakage. My conclusion, based on this limited experience, is that I will continue to hill my sweet potatoes. But, if in a pinch for time, and I really need to get them in in a hurry, I won't sweat it, if I only have time to "stick'em in the ground." As with all things garden I struggle to space my rows as wide as they should go. It's always so easy to crowd, when the garden is young and one can't easily envision the full sized plants. I did two long rows of sweet potatoes, this year. There were about 3 1/2 feet between the one row and the garden fence. Anything which outside the fence got eaten by goats and horses. Then I put the second row of sweet potatoes about 2 1/2 feet from the first. I think it worked alright. But, in the future I'd do more like 3 1/2' between two rows, or 4 to 4 1/2' between multiple rows. By "planting in hills" one means something entirely different, if making reference to sweet potatoes, squash or Irish potatoes. To plant sweet potatoes in hills means that one makes an actual ridge, upon which they plant their slips, on top of the ridge. This makes it easier for the sweet potato roots to penetrate downward, and, as we have both already mentioned, it makes it easier to harvest. To hill Irish potatoes means one plants them in the ground, sometimes even in a shallow trench, and then, as the plants grow one pulls dirt in from around the row, hilling it up around the Irish potato's stems. One ought not to do this with sweet potatoes. To plant a âÂÂhill of squashâ or of any other cucurbit (watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, etc.) simply refers to the âÂÂpatternâ of planting. Instead of planting in a row, one plants in a spot, perhaps staggering those spots in kind of a grid pattern. A âÂÂhill of squashâ doesn't have to have any elevation at all. In fact, in my garden, here in Oklahoma, my hills of squash are often depressions in the soil, into which I plant two to three seeds. Anyway, I thought this would be a good place to mention this, as I am aware that we have readers who don't already know these details. Sometimes gardening terminology can be confusing. George Tahlequah, OK

If the ground froze, they're toast. As an aside, I had some small sweet potatoes that were two years old, sorta stuck on a back shelf in the pantry, and they threw slips this spring. I planted them but I don't know yet if they're going to make it.

I have been planting my sweet potatoes this past week. I have two types from my own slips and just put in a third variety I purchased. It is plenty hot go ahead and plant. I planted about same time last year. I am all the way south not far from Delaware Bay.