Thanks! I only had some of the other posts about sweet potato harvests to go by, plus a couple of books (and they all said the same thing about waiting until frost!). My intuition told me to not wait until a real freeze, but that river keeps my air temp. too warm for a frost mostly until REALLY cold weather sets in. So, my tubers kept well, do you think the slips from them will make good, sweet tubers this year (if I harvest them much earlier)? They were a dream to grow, so I'm up for trying again. Cheers, Sunni

In East Tennessee they will continue to grow through September, but they can be harvested anytime they are big enough for your use. In Virginia we use to pull a few for eating (without destroying the vines) beginning in mid August and then dig the main crop just before the first frost. Depending on your cultivar the roots may get larger or they may start new roots. When you do take up the whole plant you should find roots from finger size on up. If you are content to continue taking some as needed, it is a good way to do it. Voles do love them so, if they do attack, they can detroy a lot of potaoes in a short time.

I just dug up one plant that I stuck in a pot last spring because I didn't have room for it anywhere else. It's my first year growing them, and I just couldn't wait and wanted to see if it worked! I have a nice pile of small but nicely formed tubers from this small pot, so I am excited like a kid on Christmas morning to harvest the main crop later this month and serve my own sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving. Does anyone have tips for curing them on a small scale? I've been reading about giving them heat and humidity to form sugars. If I put them in my detached garage that gets very warm in the daytime (the sun beats in the windows and onto the roof) under a sheet with a pan of water nearby will it work even if the temps go down into the 50s at night? Thanks!

Yeah, going by recommendations that said to harvest after a light frost that yellowed the leaves, I was assuming that might be late October or early November depending on the weather. Right after I planted them, something was eating the leaves, and I put the netting over, which took care of that. The vines have grown through the netting now, but whatever ate them got everything under the netting too. I guess the appearance does seem more like an animal (or else a really thorough insect), so maybe something got under. With no leaves, I was worried the plant might try to put out new leaves and whether that would affect the spuds. If you think its better to let them mature, I'll wait.