First Indoor Grow - Two Autoflowers

I am now reaching the end of week 4 for this grow since both plants sprouted. The Blackberry Auto is still growing like crazy! She started flowering around 10 days ago and has been getting bigger and bigger ever since. At the moment, my hanging setup does not allow for my light to hang lower, so I have been getting a little bit worried about the Blackberry stretching too high, the light is around 4ft. As I wait on fixing my hanging setup I decided to do some LST by bending the main stem of the plant using a metal rod with two ends and a flat top. I know it's recommended to use strings instead but it's all that I have atm, I hope it does not cause any issues but I don't see how it could as it essentially does the same job and the string. The only difference is that I plunge the rods into the soil, could this cause issues? Time will tell I suppose. Anyways, today I did some opposite bends and tied down a couple stems that had visible bud sights to expand my LST on the plant. I am hoping that this will increase horizontal stretching of the plant and reduce vertical as I have limited space. The plant has increased a lot in water consumption as she is growing very rapidly. I am giving her roughly 4L of water every 4/5 days, I try to give her water when I can tell that the soil is very dry and the weight of the pot is significantly reduced. I have also started to notice some smell coming out her now that she has starting flowering for over a week, mostly a gassy smell and nothing too developed. The Gelato has a been a lot different to see growing. She's a lot slower and her structure is much more compact vs my blackberry auto. The leaves are a of a much darker green and in general much larger in size. I've been feeding her a bit less water as she doesn't need as much as the Blackberry. However, she has started flowering now too so I look forward to seeing her grow more! As the growth has been much more dense and compact I don't feel the need to do any LST for now. That's it for week 4!