OK so ill try and answer all of your questions the best i can, its my day off and i just woke up so bare with me....


They need light so they know which way is up, if you dont expose them to light you can get some retarted caps with will actually grow down INTO the mycelium/substrate.


It doesnt really matter if you let them open and drop their spores in the tank BUT if you want to collect a spore sample you need to take them out.

The potency is always up for debate. Some say that they are as potent as they are going to get when they are small and its just a waste of nutrition to let them grow big. Personally I pick them as soon as the veil breaks but i plan on doing an experiment to see the differences. Unless your going to eat your mushies right off the bat when you pick them, your better of drying them because when they are wet they are subseptable(sp?) to a bunch of nasty things. I dry them out with dessicant and store them in a cool dark place.

Go record your humidity and temp and try and describe your setup a bit more and ill try and help you root out your problem. The shrooms dont grow at the same rate usually, they are staggered. 75% of the time its just your humidity is off so lets hope its just that.

In the mean time, heress some eye candy for you


http://gallery.cannabis.com/thumbnails.php?album=943