Hey bro, thanks. Yeah I'm often away for up to a week at a time for my work. They went through about 30L in the 5 days I was gone... The nutes will stay good and pH stable for at least a week but after that the res can get kinda scuzzy and possibly clog up the aquavalves, which I've had happen a couple times when I've been away for extended periods... It good practice to regularly clean the valves and flush the lines out.
Yeah defoliation with autos is still kind of a controversial subject, some people think it can hurt/stunt them... With certain plants I think it's definitely beneficial though, I trim off quite a bit of the lower secondary branches as well to focus on the main tops and get less popcorn buds.
Hey Pat, thanks for stopping by. My Blackberry has been pretty easy going... maybe a bit N sensitive initially and needs some extra cal-mag in bloom. Good luck with yours... could get a pretty big one in that 5gal with coco, hope you have enough room