Groundhog did the same to mine. Got through the fence that keeps the deer out.

When did you plant them, and when is your first frost?

I planted in late may and first frost is most likely mid November

Assuming you can keep the deer off, they will probably re-leaf and it’s worth it to leave them in the ground.

Mine did, Except that the groundhog keeps eating the leaves over and over again. I have traps up but so far he hasn’t fallen for it.

Thx akk fir the comments. If I try leaving them to see if they will re-leaf, do I run the risk of them rotting?

I doubt they rot and the leaves will return mostly if you let them grow. The one thing that ruins my near/at mature SPs is getting heavy rains before they are dug up. Many split and deform into "lunkers", depends on variety too but a tropical deluge can mess mine up if I don't dig them up in time. My frame of reference is 100+days growing. This is referring to the mother plant and not the secondary runners that have set roots away from the main plant, these runners I leave to grow more (via pruning off the main plants ) for the first frost harvest.

My original plants were bulging upward and breaking ground so I dug up that narrow row using a machete to cut the isolated vines. I purposely buried the runner vines parallel to the mother row for easy harvest later. SPs are tricky to dig so I try to make it a bit more predictable, have cut many in 2 with a shovel over the years. Happy Harvest

No. Mine went from this:

To this in about a week. Now that the groundhog has been eliminated they should be fine.

OMG, I missed the earlier typos...just proves I'm still a redneck!

Some of mine are bulging now. Prior to the deer bushhogs, I just insured the foliage from the plants kept them covered. Being the newbie at this, I just figured you didn't want to the runners to adhere to the ground because they would take nutrients away from the main plants. I guess I have a lot to learn.

I think I will dig up a few tomorrow, particularly the bulging ones, just to see what they look like.

I pulled a few yesterday that were set out in the middle of may...pretty nice size already.

Mine were set out pretty late, I ordered from Sandhill, and because of their northern location, I didn’t get them until June 10.

Well, as suggested, I went and dug up one hill today. Something tells me sweet potatoes aren't supposed to look this way. Could this be because we had epic amounts of rainfall this year? Should I go ahead and dig the rest of them up or just lave alone?

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

Do you have a very rocky soil? There is no other reason I can think of that they would look like that.

No, in fact I have a Back to Eden garden so the soil is very organic and loose

I'll dig some more tomorrow and see what they look like. Frankly, as long as they are tasty, I really don't care what they look like although disfigured like that would make slicing difficult.

I always get a few gnarly ones and they end up as a SP casserole. Generally for each hill I get 4-5 nice bakers and 1-2 lunkers like that. Here's last year's pics of Slimer the ghost and one baked chicken....both about head size.

Does anyone have trouble with mice and/or voles eating on their sweetpotatoes?

I have had some in the last 3 or 4 years. I have a trap set at each end of the sweetpotato ridge. I have caught about 13 so far this season. I like to put crunchy peanutbutter in the traps, but ants eat it up pretty quickly. The best bait is the small seeded oil sunflower seed....advice found in a 120 year old book.

Also I have a 5 foot wide plastic mulch on the ridge. Not for heat, but to keep things on the dry side to prevent scurf. Also the plastic keeps out mice as I seal the edges and ends down with dirt and the holes are only about 1¼ inch which tends to fill tightly by the time roots are sizing up.

I use a high ridge...keeps dryer and easier to harvest.

I checked mine again today and I think most are just rotting in the ground.