some things I learned about growing pumpkins

This summer was extremely dry.
It simply did not rain at all in this part of Germany.
The forest looks like toast.
I have never seen this before.

Based on last year's experience, I planted a lot more pumpkins than I normally have. Before, I had only one or two pumpkins on the compost pile and I never had to do anything to them - they would just grow.

It took more work than I expected, because I had to water them a lot.
I have a pretty good harvest though.

Picture taken late April:

Picture taken late August:

What I have learned

Do not water the leaves

While this works ok for some plants, pumpkins (like tomatoes) will inevitably get mold on their leaves and this will ultimately kill the plant.

As you can see above, exactly where I watered generously, the leaves are dying from mold. It did not rain at all - so this is clearly my fault, only.

Move the vines

I started this way too late to showcase it, but if you regularly move them to where you want them to grow, you can deliberately shape the plant.

Bury vines

I never realized, that you can just bury a vine (make a small ditch, drop the vine in, cover) and it will produce roots at the nodes. It was obvious to me that the plant does this sometimes, but enforcing it exactly where you want it, really helps a lot.

You can harvest them at any stage

Only when you want to store it, it pays off to let it ripen until the stem dries out by itself; you can also just use it like zucchini, when it is green.

This was a great experience and I learned a lot.
If the weather conditions worsen, I should look into growing cacti though.

If you got any other simple tips for better harvests, please let me know below.