first time grow/balcony/northernlights (1xfem, 2x auto)

I replanted into 25 L pots. This will be the final size for all plants. It was rainy all week. The autoflower plants seem to show weird signs of growth (twisted leaves/canoeing). I think those were signs of overwatering/nutrient lockout, as the soil didn't get the chance to properly dry during the constant rain. The photoperiod plant seems to be fine. I looked into the pH of my tap water and it turned out it's at 8. I half-heartedly flushed with water at a pH of 6, but I was scared of completely overwatering the plant as it was raining all the time. From now on, I will pH adjust the water before watering (it is still raining a lot though). I also topped the photoperiod plant to see what will happen (I thought I would rather start gaining experience now than later). My friend (who only grows indoors) told me to consider defoliating, but after some research, I decided to just remove a few leaves to see how the plant will react. I didn't feed because that would mean introducing more water and I replanted using pre-fertilized soil, so there should be enough nutrients to at least maintain its growth rate (currently very slow).