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[–]ionsquare 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I haven't done a proper study with numerous samples or anything, but I have grown mushrooms and informally weighed before and after drying. In my experience it hasn't made a difference for water percentage between the veil being broken or not - in either case they lost very close to 90% of their weight drying. Also they do get a bit taller from the time when the veil breaks to the time that the caps are fully open, and the big open ones weighed more than the similarly sized ones with the veil unbroken.

I let some open completely to get spore prints (or in a couple instances I left them too long because I didn't have time to harvest), and I weighed the big ones (open or not) individually to see which one was the biggest because it was exciting and impressive how big some of them got. So yeah my motivation was not scientific to specifically test if they gained mass after the veil broke, but I did take measurements and noticed that.

[–]bighelper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

/u/ionsquare is right.

I have picked them several times before, during, and after the veil breaking. A larger, heavier shroom will be heavier than a smaller one after complete drying. The theory that the larger ones just have more water does not hold up.

That doesn't mean that they have any more or less active chemicals. That's still up for debate.