Don't be embarrassed. If it makes you feel better I'm envious of you. No matter what size they will be delicious.
Tree

Auther, I can see no reason to be embarrassed, no matter how good we are, we are still playing against Mother Nature, and she holds all the Aces.

Larry

Auther, I agree with the others. There is no need to ever feel embarassed here. All of us deal with conditions that wildly differ, some years even more wildly than others, and we all don't get the same bumper crops in the same years.

With sweet potatoes, planting in May through early June gives me the largest yield, partly because that guarantees them enough growing days in the ground before fall's cool temperatures arrive, and partly because my best rainfall here usually falls in April through June, so the earlier I plant most years, the more the sweet potatoes get to take advantage of the rain that falls.

Other than early planting (or choosing the varieties that have comparatively short DTMS), rainfall and/or irrigation will determine what size your sweet potatoes attain and how many of them there are. You can be the best gardener in the world, but if rain steadfastly refuses to fall, the sweet potatoes aren't going to get nice and big (like Larry's do) unless you water them a lot, which I don't do. I've never seen anyone consistently get nice rainfall the way Larry does....but sometimes all that rain causes problems too.

Most years I get a good enough yield, but I only water minimally, so my yield never will be as large as other people here usually get and my sweet potatoes won't be as big as those grown by most other folks, but there's still plenty to meet our needs and they still are tasty, and that's what matters to me. I have such a big garden and such dry summers in general, that even minimal irrigation is costly, so I never over-irrigate. My plants probably think I am dryland farming, but I do try to water them enough to keep them alive and hanging on through the long dry spells.

Just be happy with the potatoes you got this year, enjoy them, and look forward to the prospects of getting a better harvest next year. I always start a new gardening year believing it will be the best year ever. It really ends up that way, but that's okay....even an average year with average yields makes me happy.

I haven't dug my sweet potatoes yet, and have no idea what I'll get when I dig them. There was decent rainfall all summer, but we were in severe drought when my sweet potatoes were planted, and the ground was so dry overall that the decent rainfall likely wasn't enough to give me huge potatoes or huge yields. It could rain heavily and look wet one day, and the next day the ground would be bone-dry already. I imagine that when I finally do harvest them, I'll dig up a bunch of small, knobby sweet potatoes but we'll enjoy them anyway.

Dawn