I had a plant that might have been a pumpkin (lost the tag) and all its leaves were a beautiful silver. It bloomed, but never set fruit and then expired in the intense heat. It may be that it's just the leaves maturing and turning color. If you have the name of the pumpkin, google images of it and see what it looks like.

On a more ominous note, this could be powdery mildew. Can you wipe off the silvery stuff with your finger? Check out this link; you might want to cut off a leaf and take in to a nursery for a good dx.

Here is a link that might be useful: powdery mildew

Thanks for the replies.
I did read about the powdery mildew and tried wiping off the silvery stuff and it will not rub off.
I did stop by Baker Nursery on my way home from work this afternoon and show them the picture and they said it was "perfectly normal", but it sure doesn't seem normal to me.
I had been watering at night, with sprinklers nonetheless, which I've read is a no-no and one of the prime causes of the powdery mildew but I stopped doing that once I noticed the silvery stuff.
It's on at least one leaf on all 16 of the plants. Other than that, they look perfectly healthy and seem to be growing like weeds.
I suppose I'll take your advice and cut a leaf and bring it to the nursery to be sure.
Thanks again for the advice.

I checked on a pumpkin that I bought at Bakers a couple of days ago and guess what? One of the leaves is silver colored and there's nothing wrong. No mildew, no nasty little bugs; it's just silvery. I think it will be OK. Unless the heat does it in. I'm putting mine under some shadecloth.

That's interesting. Did you buy a transplant or seeds? Mine are from seeds (Botanical Interest). And they are also under shade cloth.
I still think I'm gonna cut a leaf off and take it to the local nursery (I live on the westside, nowhere near Bakers) and see what they have to say. I'd hate to lose all these plants. Being new to the gardening, I've been fascinated and amazed by the growth of these things in such a short amount of time. Is there any cure for the powdery mildew or is it a lost cause?

Same thing happened to me - on two different plants (spaghetti squash and zucchini). They ended up turning brown and dying, but now both plants are pushing out new green leaves.

Really? New green leaves? I may not pull that 'dead' plant out after all. I've been so disappointed that squash, of all plants, just could not stand up to the heat. When everyone else is talking about being swamped by zucchini, I've got zilch. :( I'd love it if the plants miraculously came back.

I had this pop up on my zucchini and summer squash in the past few months. Are you noticing many white flies? For my garden, I saw a correlation. I found the linked article.

We obviously don't live in Alabama, but it sounds the same. We doused the garden with pesticide soapy water for a few days and the plants started putting on green leaves. If we don't treat the garden every couple weeks, the flies increase and the leaves start to silver out.

The white flies also don't like kelp/fish emulsion on the leaves and we use that, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Coosa County Agent

Hi Razzby,

That's interesting. I actually have noticed some very, very small white gnats/flies in the garden in the last few days...however not on the pumpkin leaves. They're all over my melon leaves which look perfect and have no signs of discoloration.

I ended up taking the picture to a 2nd nursery near my house and they said it looked like maybe I was over-watering. But said it definitely didn't look like powdery mildew.

Now I'm really confused. Guess I'll just wait and see what happens to it. If that thing doesn't make some pumpkins though, the kids are gonna be super disappointed.

"If that thing doesn't make some pumpkins though, the kids are gonna be super disappointed."

Well, so are the grown-ups!

Haha...yes, they will.
Maybe I should have held off bragging to the neighborhood kids that they'll be able to come to my house to pick their own pumpkins this year.

That's a normal color change for squash grown in extreme heat.

Sorry to ad to an older thread but I am seeing silver leaves as well, the plant seems healthy enough, normal wilt during the hot part of the day but back to normal as soon as the suns recedes. I hope lazygardens is right, and it makes sense as I am in Peoria AZ. and the heat is extreme.

I'm growing (or trying to) in Phoenix and came here to ask about this very pale/silvery leaf issue I've noted in three different cucurbits this summer (yellow squash, a small pie-type pumpkin, and decorative mini pumpkins).

I'm familiar with powdery mildew and it's not that; the color doesn't rub off and I haven't noticed any significant pests or damage. Seeing you other folks commenting from AZ, maybe it's a temperature thing? All the plants in question have been consistently heat stressed, because obviously, however not all plants of those varieties are affected. Affected plants seem smaller overall, smaller leaves, slower growing, and more flimsy and delicate than I tend to see compared to my good vines last year which were large, robust, fast, and deep green. Then again, ALL my pumpkins are slow and small this summer, silver leaf or not. Maybe it's been extra hot. Gourds shown below at 6 weeks growth.

Did anyone find out about the silver leaves? (From Glendale, Az.) Same problem, lacking nutrient? Transplanting shock?

I grow pumpkins almost every year and occasionally they will have some silver leaves like this.. I've never seen any problems with the plants that have it so I assume it's a similar thing to the variegated leaves. In my cases it's usually only a few leaves that are silver and the rest are normal. Never seen it all over the same plant. They're almost always on a variety that I don't normally grow, like Amish pie or something.

Me again with a few more years of experience: my running theory is that this is a symptom of heat stress. Lots of my cucurbit leaves do this every year when temps get in the 100s, but then when we cool off, new growth stays a healthier green color again. The two plants I showed above did end up growing multiple pumpkins each, so although this is probably not a positive thing, it is not a fatal thing. Just give silver plants a little extra TLC in the form of shade and water and it usually resolves.

Here is some info if anyone is still keeping up with this thread.-

https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef319

https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef319

this is some information if anyone is still following this thread

Thanks for posting the link, Andrea! Looks just like some of my squash leaves. I'm in central Texas, but it's mid-May and has only been in the 80's here, so probably the fly saliva (how weird is that!), not heat in my case.

I grew mine as long as I could stand the white flies. if you have them or the larve get rid of them. if you see the white flies its almost too late. I ended up with 55 pumpkins last year. I pulled some as early as 5 days. They would have been huge. What I did was cut them from the vine and put bandaids on their stems so they wouldn't lose their water. It worked perfectly! I gave some away and I used the rest to stage my front porch and a friend's porch who was selling her house. I actually still have a pumpkin from last year that looks just like it did!. I'm hoping mine are alive right now. been out of town for 5 days and my family won't touch them! Good luck with your babies!