I'm sure you figured it out by now.

I am in N. Virginia and had about four varieties of Sweet Potato this past summer. I put them on raised beds. I stole potatoes from the plants starting in August and just finished eating the last of the harvest last week (I cooked and froze some.) This was my first year for sweet potato. A couple of varieties cracked badly. I think the Beauregard did well.

I put a fence around my garden. The deer stayed out. I used T-posts and plastic web fencing like the construction companies use for erosion control. (I happened to have some lying around.)

The sweet potato I took early were small but good. The one's I harvested in early Oct ? were obviously larger. I couldn't really taste much difference in the varieties but I have to steam everything because my oven is broken. Maybe the difference is in baking.

How did you resolve your problem?

We didn't have very good luck with sweet potatoes this year. Some got big, but most didn't, and they had some weird soft spots. Our garden is in our fenced backyard so we don't have to worry about deer, etc., but I'm not sure what caused the problems. Our carrots had some strange issues too. They were both planted in raised beds with soil that was 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost.