According to the literature, cultivated mushrooms can have a variability from mushroom to mushroom within the same flush. Each mushroom does not produce the same amount. If a flush contains some mushrooms that are lower in potency, and some that are higher in potency, then eating a set amount of weight that contains a higher number of INDIVIDUAL mushrooms will prove to be more potent in the long run.
A cubensis can be as much as 15+ dry grams each. This is three strong doses from one mushroom. If that mushroom is one of the weaker within the flush, you may end up with three weak doses. The same 15+ gram sample could contain 100 aborts. Some of which are weak, some that are strong, and some that are average potency.
COMMON SENSE would state that the abort sample of 15 + grams dry would be more likely to produce more potentcy, over time. JUST BECAUSE IT CONTAINS MORE MUSHROOMS, to yield the same weight.
Would you rather have 1 chance at high potency, or a 100 chances.
Potency within a species is a range!!!! The more samples you experience or test, the more accurate the AVERAGE potency determination is. I can assure you that NOT ENOUGH TESTING has been done, on a GLOBAL SCALE to determine even a remotely accurate scale of WILD CUBENSIS POTENCY, let alone AN ACCURATE DETERMINATION OF SECONDARY METABOLITE PRODUCTION AS IT RELATES TO GROWTH PHASES WITHIN THE SPECIES COMPLEX P. cubensis.
There are many more mushrooms that have been studied in this aspect. Secondary metabolite production and it's correlation to growth. The most common factor that has been linked is that NUTRIENT DEPRIVATION( the most limiting element, becomes limited and it triggers secondary metabolite production). This means that when the Mycelium colony starts getting nutrient deprived, it ceases to GROW, and initiates Fruiting and secondary metabolite production.
This is why on a petri plate, even mycelial colonies that won't fruit invitro, will START to blue. They have used up a single or multiple nutrients that are required for growth, and PRIMARY growth stops, and Secondary metabolite production INCREASES.
Secondary metabolite production begins, speeds up, reaches a peak, and stops. Just like the primary growth phase of the mycelium.
Secondary metabolites serve many possible purposes. Theories exist relating to chemical defense and counteradaptation, theories relating to toxicity avoidance within the mycelial network( trash can theories), and many others are being brought forward. The most common understanding is that no single theory can be excepted because each theory is inconsistent when viewed across the entire mycological, and botanical taxonomy. NOT EVERY SPECIES follows the exact same timeline in secondary metabolite production.
The most common trigger seems to be NUTRIENT DEPRIVATION as both a trigger for primary growth to slow/stop, and secondary metabolism to begin. But there are many exceptions to even that.
PROOF is in a MAJOR all incompassing study. Not a study on a single sample from a single flush, but a study that samples broadly. Also a study needs to be done that samples individual mushrooms both mature and aborted, independently. Doing this with LOTS of mushrooms.
Simply measuring 5 grams of aborts againts five grams of matures, once or even twice will not be accurate.
Just know that you will have alot easier time eating MANY individuals in a sample of aborts, versus a sample of matures. Your CHANCES of eating a sample containing POTENT shrooms( at the high end of the RANGE for the species) increases with the number of individuals you consume. Smaller mushrooms mean MORE individuals per dried sample.
This common sense understanding EXPLAINS alot when you look at a species like the copelandia complex. These mushrooms are SMALL, and it takes many of them to make up a single dose. When you look at the LITERATURE on POTENCY range, they are not VERY POTENT compared to other SPECIES, but anyone who has eaten them will tell you they SEEM FAR MORE POTENT then the literature would IMPLY. One theory would be that which I am stating. SIZE matters. It matters because the more individuals you consume, the greater the chance of eating some that are at the HIGHER END of the potency RANGE.
Individual to individual, flush to flush, strain to strain, species to species VARIABILITY EXISTS.
My favorite cubensis strain for personal consumption is small in size, and large in pin sets. It produces wall to wall flushes of small cubensis. A five gram dry sample can contain 10+ mushrooms. When eating this strain in comparison to another strain, Isolated from the same PRINT, that produces fewer but larger mushrooms on the same substrate in the same environment, the smaller mushroom strain consitently delivers a stronger punch. BUT not every time. Sometimes the larger strain that is usually less then a single mushroom per dose, is HEAVIER in potency. That PARTICULAR MUSHROOM just happened to be at the TOP end of potency range, and yielded a heavy trip.
OVER TIME though the smaller mushrooms from the same print as the larger mushrooms are coming from, grown in identical conditions, is more potent consistently, but not EVERY TIME.
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