Pumpkins/Winter Squash Green and Health at the end of the vines, but wilting and dying closer to the roots.

G'day,

For some reason the front two meters/yards of my pumpkin vine is nice and green and healthy, but the rest of the vine is dead or dying, and this has been continuing for as long as the vine has been growing.

Fruits start to form near the end of the vine and look great for the first week or so, but then the dying part of the vine starts to get close and they shrivel up and die.

These pumpkins came up out of some compost in a bed I was preparing for something else, so I haven't really been taking good care of them, other than a little bit of watering (we get pretty good rain here, so I haven't watered much), this is likely part of the problem.

I'm not too concerned about trying to save this vine (it's already August in Oz), but I'm hoping to grow more pumpkins next spring, and I'd like to know what might be causing the problem so I can avoid it next season.

Does anyone have any idea what might be the issue?

PS: If it makes a difference I'm pretty confident that they are Jap Pumpkins, a cultivar of *Cucurbita Maxima*, so similar to the Banana or Hubbard squash cultivars.

PPS: You'll notice in the photos that the bed wasn't really big enough and the vines have now just sort of grown out over the mix of weeds and ornamentals that grow in the rest of my garden.

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