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

corkball, I have clay soil.......and there are veins so heavy and white it could be used in a horse shoe pit. I avoid those, lol. For the most part, I plant trees in it without issue and never with ammendment. I am careful, however, to consider the tree because some are less tolerant of water issues for the most part and I get around it by planting those on hillsides, of which I have many. That's why raised bed planting comes up. I dunno......the chestnut I suspect you may find be futile and may want to consider waiting until dormancy and if it's small enough to try and move it. If you do.....look at roots carefully. It may have been a dead man walking when it was planted. Why I am saying this is I'd hope that the newest growth would show signs of "pulling out if it". And that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact it looks almost as if the newest growth has some leaf curl and distortion compared to the other picture of the healthy oak. Sometimes that's a symptom of calcium deficiency and that can be exacerbated by magnesium applications, foliar or root. How large are these young trees?

Blue, not until you said no. I'd like to visit it and really look around the arboretum but the last two times I spent too long in their plant center (incidentally where I bought the GS). I'm ridiculously confused by the pines I see roadside as I drive my lorry up and down the country. I seem to see varieties of possible p.sylvestris in colours from aqua blue to dark green and forms from very regular 'fingered' (generally the bluishish/greeny greyish) to the classic bare trunked with upward clusters - also massive fully branched specimens. Does p.s come in such variety or am I seeing entirely different trees?

Its fine.. Couple seasons ago I grew them and got many different size/shapes. Some came out the classic deep orange and symmetric shape, but other came out different. (the bottom left is another type pumpkin.) But the biggest one, in the middle had lots of green spots, and was pretty bumpy looking. But when we ate it, it was fine, just as good as any of the others.