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My pumpkin plant (Mars ) has 4 or 5 good sized pumpkins ( green at the moment ), but the plant is still growing, and now appears to have what looks like mildew on the leaves ( simular to a mosaic virus, but not as bad )
Can I stop the growth of the plant by cutting the runners, and will the pumpkins be affected if the leaves die back?

Anyone?

I usually just leave them alone.

It will be powdery mildew, it is about the time of the year, the fruit will continue to ripen for as long as the plant stays viable but once the mildew gets a real hold there is little you can do, there are some remedies but it only gives you a very short time and I never bother , it is September..

Leave them on the vine till the plant dies off, there is no point to trimming anything at this point, once the plant is really gone the fruit will stop growing as they can't pull any nourishment from the plant.

then take in the pumpkins, wipe doen with a mild solution of bleach and leavea good handle on, don't hold it by the handle though, leave then somewhere warm, they may cure ok it depends on how far they get. If they do cure store them in a cool place

But leave them on the plant as long as you can.

XX Jeannine

Thanks Jeannine, Can I pull some of the leaves off to let what little sun we are having ripen the fruit?

I'd be tempted to leave the leaves on,but get some straw under the pumpkins to get them off of the soil (if you haven't already) else they'll start to rot from underneath.

I have put some sawdust undersneat, and most of them ore on black mebrane anyway so not touching the soil. :)