Yes spider-mites are absolutely the worst enemy you want your plants to be dealing with, They should not be a problem this time around, as my grow is exclusively indoors. One mistake newbie growers make is they keep taking their indoor plants and leave them outdoors in the sun. Trust me this is not a great idea, and you can risk infecting your grow space with pests/diseases from outside.
But as a precaution, I will spray a mix of chilli-garlic extract as you have suggested. Also routine inspection of leaves underside helps catch those buggers in early stages. So I am being careful.
After growing photo-period strains, I feel that Autos are fairly low maintenance, its a great feeling not being bothered with light/dark schedule and keeping the plant height in check which one has to do with regular strains.
But I agree that if you mess up with your auto-flowers, total yield will be severely affected as unlike regular plants, autos do not have the time to 'recover' from mal-nutrition/overfeeding/Ph problems, etc
As a guy who only wants to grow only for keeping personal stash, and not having to rely on outside sources with shitty stuff. I am quite happy growing autos, and plan to mostly try various strains that I can grow round the year. Hoping to get some strain recommendations from
@indysouthsativa for my next order.
Doesn't look like any serious issue the brown spots could be due to stress or mishandling the seedling, my best guesses.
Apart from that the stem looks a bit stretched, I suggest move your CFL a bit closer, about 3-4 inches. How far are the lights positioned?