dig up one plant and see what you find.go from there.

 

Sometimes the literature won't be accurate to your area. I would dig up a plant or two and try it. I found with sweet potatoes that it took me over a month to harvest them (but I'm lazy too). The nice thing with sweet potatoes is that if you carefully dig and don't like the size just cover it back up with dirt, easy to grow.

 

Call one of the nurseries in North Carolina this is where they grow them to get your answer about when to harvest them.

 

I usually harvest after the first frost, they'll keep in the ground for a little while after that.

 

If you want them to grow wild, do you just leave them?..I want them wild all around my place

 

I know there's something about letting the "cure" after harvest.
Lay them out to dry or something for a few days at a constant temperature.
Makes them sweeter? I don't recall, just that there's a process.

Sorry... not much more I remember about them.
Maybe somebody else chime in here? Help?

 

Sweets are tropical. If you live down south, you could grow year round and make allot I suppose. Each leaf joint is a tuber bearer but up north, the season ends too soon to get scads of tubers, at each slip branch. Usually just the main plant slip that you planted produces. Gets too cold too soon. I am sure there are more knowledgeable growers around here, only been growing them a few years.

Need to let them cure slowly in a humid, warm environment for a week. Then cure in a cold area for a few weeks. Longer the cure, the sweeter the tuber, need to convert the starches. I use a tub.