Spider Mites or New Grower Paranoia? Please advise

[goddessgreen]

I'm on day 21 of my first grow. I noticed over the past few days what appear to be spider mites but I'm a new grower and aware I might just be paranoid...

Can someone advise if they look healthy?

I want to transplant them into a bigger container this weekend but not sure if that would be bad before addressing the spider mite issue.

The plant on the right got a little burn from one of the bulbs too...

Seed type - Mystery bag seeds
Stage - Sprouted 21 days ago, still in first 4" container
Indoor Tent Grow 48x24x60
Soil - Fox Farms Ocean Forest mixed with a little perlite
Current pot size - 4" square
Lights - 18/6 (1) 4' T5 Eye Hortilux PowerVEG, (4) 40w 6500, (4) 23w 6500k
Fan - oscillating room fan on ground by plants, box fan suspended by exhaust vent
Temp of Room - 70F
RH - 42-60
PH of last runoff - 6.5
Watering - About every 3-4 days as needed
Nutrients - Added added the first dose of Big Bloom at 1/4 strength a week ago, another 1/4 dose yesterday of Big Bloom and Grow Big 1/4

 

[Big Sur]

They look fine to me. If you want to hunt for spider mites, look under the leaves for fine webbing. I use a magnifying glass. I doubt that you have any there though. Really. They look fine. You are far less likely to get mites with seed grown plants than with cuttings that can be infected with eggs or crawlers.

To eradicate mites, I use Avid. You can get the generic (Abamectin 2%) online (Ebay) for cheap. You need to spray several times as it does not kill the eggs. To enhance the effects of Avid (and kill any eggs and get through the fine webbing), mix it with ag soap and ag oil. Ag oil used to be better (mineral oil) but they have made it less effective these days. Ag soap is also sold as a spreader, as it makes water 'wetter' and covers the leaves better as well as gets into the webbing. You can also go organic and spray with just the soap and oil, but you have to spray the entire plant coating the adult mites, all stages of crawlers and the eggs to be effective. Avid is easier and more effective as it is transfoliar, meaning that any mites will be killed on contact as well as any mites on the other side of the leaves. However, while Avid is derived from organic sources, it is toxic. You have to be careful spraying it inside and in greenhouses. You do not have to be as anal about spraying it outside, but you want to wear protective clothing and a spray mask rated for pesticides (purple). You need to wear protective clothing spraying with ag mineral oil as well.

 

[Radogast]

IMO, bugs are never a reason not to transplant.

If the roots are ready to transplant, waiting only stresses/slows down the plant.

I recently harvested plants that were spider mite affected for half their life. The yield was off, but the smoke quality is excellent.

- - -

That one lowest leaf looks POSSIBLY spider mite affected, just the one leaf.

If you have untreated spider mites, that leaf and it's neighbprs should look worse by now.