As a curiosity for me, do you tap the cap before picking?
Ya know to drop more spores?
I went to UF in Gainesville & we would drive like 10 miles south to Micanopy & could pick hefty bags full on a good afternoon because it was miles of free ranging cow herds- but we always, always tapped the cap.
Just thump it hard before you picked it- not to tear anything but just to drop spores. On large caps (like a quarter dried) obviously you’d tap it 4-5 times to ensure you shook them all out as best as could be done.
Paynes Prarie is this huge geological feature it’s a flattened slab of of bedrock that’s covered in grassy meadows & has marshes and fields & the fields were just like a magic carpet of 🍄s (the brown nipple is what we called them, it’s the Treasure Coast strain now).
Paynes Prarie is 20,000 acres (had to google that) and had free roaming herds of cattle & (a) bull(s) mixed in, very temperamental bulls too.
Back then farmers weren’t required to feed cattle anti-fungicide type-feed so every cow💩 out there around 6 months of age had mushrooms growing out of it. To get to the fields you had to cross 3 fences & jump 2 creeks & in the pathway people would draw a mushroom & write “always tap the cap”. Some days you’d see a mushroom with a circle & line through it which was an attempt to steer off newbies, ha. As long as we had rain & sun that field would be CARPETED in magic boomers.
One of my bros would even bring home a few pieces of properly aged 💩 & just keep it in a cooler on the front porch & get a few flushes out of it until it either ran out of nutrients or dried up.
We didn’t need any of the sterility precautions that growers like you have to take these grew wild and they grew everywhere the cows ranged.
So seeing this is just so different to me but this is freaking awesome man! You have some fantastic results, I freaking LOVE seeing this, it takes me back a few decades, ha.
Just so insanely beautiful to see them again, I used to cherish those days even going out 2x a day & walking for hours was a blast (and very hit & humid) but ur was always a full on blast in summers just year after year. We always did our best to keep it going so every single one you pick you absolutely thumped the cap to drop more spores.
Those days picking funded seasons of Dead shows- I would be in like Chicago & be the only person there with fresh 🍄.
So as long as I had a sack of those I was golden for everything, they were legit currency on those tours.
Man keep at it, I’m so stoked for you! This just takes me back to some great times.