I recommend doing it by hand, on any size plot. I only do about 200 plants, but my garden fork works excellent!

Do ya have good luck get a big amount of sweet taters up there?

I'm not in Minn anymore, I moved to upstate NY, but I've had good yields in both areas with early varieties like Beauregard and Georgia jet. I've dug a lot with a fork, too, but I want to grow more than I can dig by hand.

I was hoping to get the neighbor potato farmer to dig mine. I better read up on it. I was going to cut off the vine from the tubers and then pull out all the vines and then plastic mulch before they came in. It took so long to dig 300 plants last year.

i dug 200 last year and it took a long time. i just did a bucket a day. i think a middle buster would break up a lot of sweet potatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful:

I hand dig mine too, but we had over 500 last year. The Beauregards were easy to dig, but I also grew Centinial (very long and deep), Bunch Porto Rico, (not very big around, but also longer) and purples (which grew everywhere). I always start digging enough for the markets that week and allow them to continue to grow.

I was getting tired by the end and plowed out the last 15-20 feet with my one row lister. I was afraid they would break them up, but I was pleasantly surprised when they didn't. There were a few, but I had plenty so it was not a big deal. I am planting more next year, probably up to 700. I ran out of oranges before Thanksgiving and I still have 1.5 boxes of purples. They are keeping and selling much better, I am planning on growing more.

Even with lister plowing them out, it still was work. First cutting the vines, pulling them out of the way, pulling up the plastic and drip tape and finally sitting down on the tractor.

jrslick, what is a lister plow- is it like a middle buster (potato plow)?