II haven't topped my babiies and they are being flipped in 5 days

You can top the all back to the same height, regardless of how much you remove, be that 3 inches or 3 feet. Yes, 7-10 days is best for recovery before flipping to flower. Also yes, you should learn something from EVERY grow.

You can prune to size, give it 7 days to heal, and flip... you have control over when you change the light cycle, so there's nothing stopping you. 5 days vs 7 days of healing probably won't make much of a difference either way. Learning just how much growth you get based on vege length, typical growth rates of your garden and the vege growth that remains after flip will help you time everything better and avoid overgrown plants. When half the area is filled, it'll generally fill in the rest after flip. Just have to trust it. Can adjust your timing based on what you see to best avoid wasted growth and resources. HST is something you can do if the canopy grows unevenly... snap down stems of taller colas. better to do that after vege growth ends or at least tapering off. Snap stems once to level it out rather than twice. Expect top 6" or so to bend back upward toward light... may need to tie anything down that is snapped or it'll just lurch back vertically over time.

If you top a plant, you take away the hormon-processes which work in the top for a few days. If you switch to flower in these days, there is a high possibility to force her to herm and build some male flowers. The 7 to 10 days that @The_Kitchen_Raccoon mentioned should be fine. LST and supercropping is a bit safer, as the hormon-issues are not that hard, but going to flower (what is stress for the plant) and adding any stress for training, is still not the best choice.

Not too late, but you’re limited now focus on bending (LST), tying down and maybe supercropping to control height instead of chopping hard in late veg/early flower, and just learn for next run with earlier training/topping

Hi there, 7-10 days veg after topping is the minimum imo.