You can go either way on the sprouts. As long as your weather looks decent, plant so the upper surface of the tuber is about 4" down and cover it (and part of your sprout) with at least an inch of soil, though it won't hurt anything to cover it all to ground level. If you do just the inch, the soil will be warmed by sun faster and you can fill in the rest of the hole as time goes on.

Another good idea would be to protect those shoots from slugs, preferably with a non-metaldehyde slug bait, if there are pets in the area. Sluggo has worked great to control the slug population here. Good luck!

Thanks poochella, we are currently having our obligatory two days of rain but the forecast is showing five days of sun starting tomorrow. I'm starting to panic because i have dahlias and glads to plant and my vegetable garden has been tilled and ready to plant for three weeks. Next weeks forecast is calling for "busy'. Again,many thanks. unc