I strongly doubt it. Check for squash vine borer holes at the base of the pumpkin vines. If you're stuck on the idea that it's nutrient loss to sunflowers, toss half a bag of compost around the pumpkin plants and water it in (or spray the area with water-soluble fertilizer, fish emulsion, manure tea or whatever floats your boat). It won't hurt anything and will provide enough nutrients for both. I figure you're having a problem completely unrelated to the sunflowers.

A few thoughts... Was the weather hot this year? I know it's tough growing on concrete or blacktop, that usually makes matters worse. Also, maybe you had SVB problems... currently or in the past (growing in the same spot, they can hatch this year right under the plant.) It's hard to tell if it's SVB or bacterial wilt... bacterial wilt often takes down the entire plant... yours looks like just part of the plant. The fruit aborts can be heat related, especially since they are on pavement. I have a rear main vine on blacktop and no fruits set there, plus some leaves have crispy edges. The dried up leaves near the middle look similar to aged leaves near the beginning of a plant--they get that look from a combination of things--age, heat, wetting of the leaves during high heat, etc. I would look for signs of frass & holes in the vine section that's wilted, close to the stump. Also kinked or broken vines can cause the rest of a section of vine to wilt like that. See if you have any cucumber beetles in the flowers too. Hope this helps. Mark

Spoke to my husband about squash last night and he clarified somethig. Apparently all the yellow squash this summer has tasted funny to him. So could it be the unusually high heat this summer? can that affect taste? I just can't think why the squash wouldn't taste good this year.

Hello all, I have been having the same issues. Let me recount my story for you. I planted zucchini eight ball squash, yellow crooked neck squash, and butternut squash. They were all doing awesome and producing a lot of fruit. Then the snails arrived. They were eating all my fruit so I bought some natria slug and snail killer. Worked like a charm. I was watering the plant for 10 minutes 2 times a day, in the morning and in the evening. This brought out the white mold on the leaves. I tried using a milk and water mixture to spray the leaves as well as cutting off all the infected leaves. This kind of worked, but I have been battling it for 2 months, but not seriously trying. I cut the watering back to 1 time a day in the morning for 10 minutes. Recently I have switched it to 3 times a week for 10 minutes. But what I have noticed is that the new leaves yellow and quickly turn brown and die. What would be causing this? I have checked for vine borers by slitting open some leaf stems but I found nothing. Here are some more pictures. Whole garden New green leaves, yellow on the outside and dead leaves around the plant Lemon cucumber plants. Started out great and now leaves started yellowing and just now they are starting to brown Heres is a little bug hat I've seen around my plants...it looks like a discolored lady bug. Anything to worry about? Thanks! This post was edited by paperslammer on Fri, Sep 5, 14 at 11:27