Close to harvest would mean there are a lot of leaves to eat. Meaning either a lot of insects or it was something else.

No idea where you are located but if it is harvest season and all (or most) of the leaves are gone - by all means - yes harvest.

In Atlanta it would be early to harvest yet I think. Even here I don't dig them until mid-to late Oct. But if all the leaves are gone then the spuds won't grow any more in size but can still do some maturing. You really need to know what ate all the leaves.

Dave

Yeah, going by recommendations that said to harvest after a light frost that yellowed the leaves, I was assuming that might be late October or early November depending on the weather.

Right after I planted them, something was eating the leaves, and I put the netting over, which took care of that. The vines have grown through the netting now, but whatever ate them got everything under the netting too. I guess the appearance does seem more like an animal (or else a really thorough insect), so maybe something got under.

With no leaves, I was worried the plant might try to put out new leaves and whether that would affect the spuds. If you think its better to let them mature, I'll wait.

Weather allowing and assuming what ever ate them is gone, the plants may well try to put out some new growth but that wouldn't affect the existing potatoes.

Dave

Just. a way I do it post. I am in Augusta, GA and in the process of digging sweet potatoes. My target date is the first week of October weather permitting. I transplant in late April. They will grow slowly until frost, but the additional insect damage, growing away from the hill, cracking due to second growth is not worth it for me.

...but then last week I noticed that something had eaten all the leaves (I suspect an insect as all leaves are gone and part was covered with bird netting).

Fuzzy caterpillars are chewing on my SP leaves now, insect damage usually make the leaves look like swiss cheese, animal damage (rabbits, groundhog) eat the entire leaf just leaving the stem, if that.

For harvest, if the mother plants are 100-110+ days old from transplant then it's probably ok to dig those up, esp if you see the ground heaving upward from the mother pant. If you have 2ndary rootings they can be left until first frost, that's what I do anyways (just amputate the vines close to the mother plant).

Ok, thanks everyone. I realized yesterday that animal damage was more likely as the leaves were completely gone, and then I found a spot where something had gotten under the netting.