Hi Chill.
All caught up on your journal, your Critical is looking great so far, getting very bushy for sure.
I'm a DWC grower so I'm not the best person to get advise from for soil grow tips, but as far as topping, I can help for sure.
When you "top" the main branch at the very top of the plant, you create two new tops/branches. It usually takes a couple of days, but you should see the 2 new tops starting to develop. You can repeat the process again on the 2 newly created tops once they heal and grow a little, and this will create 4 tops etc..etc....
I usually top my seedlings at the fourth or fifth node fairly early in growth so the plant splits early and is easier for me to train. Once the two tops have recovered and are starting vertical growth again is when I start the LST process with string.
Here's a pic of my Sour Diesel I've grown from seed in the solo cup, you can see where I originally topped her and started the training by tying the branches to the sides of the cup. Some of the lower growth is brownish cause she is root bound in that cup now, she's being transplanted into my DWC reservoir this weekend after I harvest my OG Kush.
By tying down the branches, all her lower growth branches have now become tops. This little Sour D has 9 tops so far!!
If you want to take clones of your girls go for it. Its a great way to save on seed costs, and if you really like a certain strain you can just clone it over and over again. I would suggest maybe going to YouTube and search for "Cannabis cloning" or some variation of that. You'll come up with TONS of videos on how to clone. I use a cloning gel called Clonex which I
highly recommend. A little bottle will last you a long time the the stuff works great.
My Harvested Critical from a month ago is still curing. I find it has almost no smell and the taste isn't great. It has a very green taste, nothing like the other strains I've grown. So I'm hoping the longer cure will help with the taste a little. The buzz is very mild. I hope yours turn out better than mine but I gotta say I wasn't impressed with the RQS Critical and won't be growing it again. (Mine had a pheno prob with the 3 bladed leaves also)
Your first grow is definitely going to be the hardest but you've been getting great advise from Antics and others, and your girls seems to be coming along very nice.
Good luck & Subscribed, I'll try to help where I can.
Cheers.