Spider Mites?

[GrowInTheDark]

Hi I have a couple plants that are fairly healthy, in soil with ph'd water at 6.4, they are under 800w cfl's at 10,000 Lumens per m². The bottom leaves have started to "rust", so i bought some cal-mag and gave it to them yesterday after a flush(they had too much nitrogen in the soil as well), but noticed these white specks on my leaves and wanted some opinions on the matter. Could it be spider mites?

 

[Marzbadrock]

Can you take another pic like the first one but of the underside of the leaf instead

 

[GrowInTheDark]

As Requested

 

[OlderGrower]

Actually I believe the 2nd to last picture is of the bottom of the leaf and if you look closely you will see small black specs on them. You my friend have spider mites.
But to be sure, take your pocket microscope or jewelers loop and inspect those black specks that are on the bottom of the leaves that have the white spots on them. You will see the lil SOBS clearly.
Looks to me like you found them early which is good news for you. All you have to do is use a product like sn-217 or neem oil or any of the many products available and then make darn sure you follow up every three days for at least 3 to 4 sprayings. Also do not use the same product for each spraying, alternate so they do not develop an immunity to it. The reason you have to follow through with so many sprays is to kill the eggs when they hatch before they can start laying more eggs.

Best of luck to you, my friend

 

[Major PITA]

Looks very possible for mites. That's the bad news. The good news is, there aren't very many ... yet.
I'd hit hit 'em now and hit 'em hard, like every three days for at least 4 applications. After that check frequently and be proactive to keep them at bay. You may never get rid of them, but if you keep after them, they probably won't be a big deal.

If you grab one of the microscope apps (like Cozy) for your phone, you should be able to verify by grabbing shots of the back of a suspect leaf.

 

[GrowInTheDark]

Are there any home remedies I can try, I'm not prone to just spraying my plants with pesticides.

 

[Major PITA]

Are there any home remedies I can try, I'm not prone to just spraying my plants with pesticides.

I've heard of several, but no idea if any are really effective. The ones that sound like they could work can also be hard on the plant. I use neem and pyrethrin. I won't use anything in mid to late bloom, but other than that, I have to use something or give up growing...

I've heard of: oil, garlic, pepper, soaps, etc.

 

[Marzbadrock]

You need to examine them more closely before taking any drastic measures, it could be mites but it looks like thrips to me. If you have a pair of binoculars you can turn them around backwards and use them like a microscope. Thrips will look like tiny pieces of rice. Mites witty be white or yellow with a black dot on both sides of their body or completely reddish-orange with white legs.

 

[Marzbadrock]

Also with small plants a really good method for knocking down the bugs is to place the plant in a shower or sink and spray it down thoroughly washing away the lil critters.

 

[OlderGrower]

You need to examine them more closely before taking any drastic measures, it could be mites but it looks like thrips to me. If you have a pair of binoculars you can turn them around backwards and use them like a microscope. Thrips will look like tiny pieces of rice. Mites witty be white or yellow with a black dot on both sides of their body or completely reddish-orange with white legs.

I completely agree you need to be 100% sure what you are trying to get rid of before you start any kind of regiment, since it is always possible that it may be something else. If you are growing, you will need some form of magnifier eventually to check out the trichomes on your plants, so if you do not have a plan already in place, pocket-micro scope, jewelers loupe, or even binoculars turned around looking through them backwards, I suggest you pick one of the aforementioned up. I believe I paid like 12 or 13 dollars for mine I have a 30 to 60x micro-scope. And believe me, when you focus in on either a spider mite or a thrip, it will be very clear what you are looking at.
If you google Thrip and Spider Mite and click on image, you should be able to determine what you have quite easily for yourself.