The sweet potato is extremely sensitive to bruising. Most growers in Western Australia dig sweet potatoes by hand. This minimises damage to the skin of the potatoes, but is very labour intensive. It is possible to modify a potato harvester to successfully harvest sweet potatoes, but this may reduce quality and give rise to more volunteer crops. If frost kills the sweet potato vine, dig up roots as soon as possible, since their quality declines quickly.
Potatoes rot quickly in cold wet soils.
In Perth, sweet potatoes are often ground-stored. A plastic cover 2.5 m wide is placed over the whole row in May to preserve quality. This may be removed in late August when there is less rainfall. By this means, roots may be stored up to December, but yields and quality will decrease with increasing ground storage. Roots must be harvested as soon as possible if an inspection shows any signs of scurf on the roots.