I've been growing squash and pumpkins for market for 30+ years, so I have a little bit of experience, if you want to take my advice.

Personally, I would only cut off leaves if they are diseased, not just old. If there is still green on the leaf, then it is still collecting sunlight and respirating, both of which the plant needs as much as possible.

For the life of me, I can't understand why he would say to make sure the vines don't take root away from the base of the plants. The more roots that are spread out, the more water and nutrients get into the plants, and the better the plants grow. In fact, I will occasionally straighten the vines when they are growing too close to the base.

It makes me wonder if maybe your neighbor is giving you bad advice on purpose.

Heh, quite a funny thing actually... his pumpkins and cukes have completely died off, while mine are growing wonderfully. His wife comes over on a regular basis asking for my radishes for his salads. I pretty much knew the second bit of advice was garbage, I wasn't so sure about the first. Thank you so much!

Does your neighbor grow Atlantic Giants (AG)? His advice sounds similar to the AG growers at Bigpumpkins.com, they love cutting of leaves and pruning vines because of "wasted energy." Curling the vine is a new one to me. I think he is assuming you only water the base of the plant and the rest of the plant is in very dry soil that lacks nutrients.