I only did about 10 feet of "flat sweet potatoes." I've had interaction with some who tell me that hilling is unnecessary, especially in our warm summer climate. Well, I see that they produce okay without the hill. But you are correct about difficulty in digging as well as breakage. My conclusion, based on this limited experience, is that I will continue to hill my sweet potatoes. But, if in a pinch for time, and I really need to get them in in a hurry, I won't sweat it, if I only have time to "stick'em in the ground."

As with all things garden I struggle to space my rows as wide as they should go. It's always so easy to crowd, when the garden is young and one can't easily envision the full sized plants. I did two long rows of sweet potatoes, this year. There were about 3 1/2 feet between the one row and the garden fence. Anything which outside the fence got eaten by goats and horses. Then I put the second row of sweet potatoes about 2 1/2 feet from the first. I think it worked alright. But, in the future I'd do more like 3 1/2' between two rows, or 4 to 4 1/2' between multiple rows.

By "planting in hills" one means something entirely different, if making reference to sweet potatoes, squash or Irish potatoes. To plant sweet potatoes in hills means that one makes an actual ridge, upon which they plant their slips, on top of the ridge. This makes it easier for the sweet potato roots to penetrate downward, and, as we have both already mentioned, it makes it easier to harvest. To hill Irish potatoes means one plants them in the ground, sometimes even in a shallow trench, and then, as the plants grow one pulls dirt in from around the row, hilling it up around the Irish potato's stems. One ought not to do this with sweet potatoes. To plant a âÂÂhill of squashâ or of any other cucurbit (watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, etc.) simply refers to the âÂÂpatternâ of planting. Instead of planting in a row, one plants in a spot, perhaps staggering those spots in kind of a grid pattern. A âÂÂhill of squashâ doesn't have to have any elevation at all. In fact, in my garden, here in Oklahoma, my hills of squash are often depressions in the soil, into which I plant two to three seeds. Anyway, I thought this would be a good place to mention this, as I am aware that we have readers who don't already know these details. Sometimes gardening terminology can be confusing.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Mr. George, I try to make my sweet potato ridges at least 3 ft. apart, but like you said it still manages to all grow together and you are right about 4 1/2 ft. would probably be better. I do it on account off space in my garden. Seems there is just never a enough room for every thing.
The hills that I was referring to were actually hills about the size of a car tire. A man I once knew made these hills and planted sweet potato slips on them. He told me that he would have a bushel of sweet potato's under each hill. BUT! it didn't turn out that way when he dug them.
You come as close to a bushel as I have ever seen.