New Loquat sprout showing puckering and dimpling in the leaves :'(

[TajimiRich]

Hey all,

My original post disappeared so I'll give it another try.

A few months ago i took a nice Loquat fruit home (was distributed at my workplace after the boss had gone on a trip to an area famous for producing the best Loquats in Japan) i took out the five or so large seeds in the middle of it and planted them about a finger length's depth in the soil of a large pot. (My ground here is unsuitable for direct planting)

It took a number of months (and a bit of convincing to my s/o to not throw the soil out and reuse the pot) but at long last, unexpectedly, a shoot popped up a week or two ago and has been growing quite quickly since.

Of course I'm worried about this coming up in late summer (I'll be asking the forum what to do when winter comes) , but what I'm more worried about at the moment is the appearance of dimpling and puckering on the leaves of the new shoot. (See attached image)

My question is this: what's wrong?

Could it just be sustained exposure to some tough sun? I live in the hottest city in Japan, and with the sun sitting lower in the sky these days my plants are getting almost a whole day of laser sunlight..

could it be poor soil? There a huge retaining wall plastered over a slope right next to our house which is festooned with vines and weeds - could they be sending spores that contaminate the soil?

Could it be insects? Said slope must house a million bugs, perhaps some of them are messing with the Loquat? I've other plants that get chewed leaves~

Could it be something about moisture? It can get quite humid here, and typhoons blow through on occasion, i had some zucchini and cucumber plants that succumbed to apparent leaf sicknesses and rot during the wet season~ but said season is over now..

Could it be minerals? Lack of nutrients?

Could i just be overreacting?

In the attached image the leaves that are less obviously puckered are, i believe, newer ones. I'll attach another, earlier photo as well to give you some kind of time lapse idea of what's going on.

Thanks for any thoughts you might give!

 

[TajimiRich]

Addendum: upon reviewing the attached images one sees that both the younger and older snaps feature leaves that look less than healthy.

My question stands.

 

[Marck]

Greetings, welcome to the Forums.

Leaves on mature Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) are normally quite puckered. However a couple of the leaves on your seedling also look mottled and pitted which is not normal. There may be a problem there. The seedling should be inspected for spider mites or thrips, either which can cause damage similar to what is shown. Do you have any more recent pics of how this situation further developed?