I water cured and it shrinks big time no smell no taste but you do have more thc in a smaller space. More potent.
You don't get more THC.
The THC levels remain exactly the same as they were when the bud was air dried and cured. I know this is a bit 'nitpicky' but this is exactly how misinformation spreads and gathers momentum. The THC levels remain exactly the same as they were before.
What you're referring to, is that whilst the THC levels in terms of quantity remain exactly the same, the actual density of the bud in terms of volume actually reduces due to more impurities and chlorophyll being removed from the bud volume thus reducing down it's dried weight, when compared to air dried bud.
So if you were to smoke a gram of air dried bud, and then water cure a gram of air dried bud and smoked it, the THC levels of both will be exactly the same, thus the water cured bud DOES NOT increase in potency. However, if you were to air dry two lots of 6 ozs of bud and water cure one lot of 6 ozs and then smoke a gram of the air dried and a gram of the water cured the water cured bud would be more potent due to the reduction in volume thus you're actually getting slightly more THC by volume although the THC levels would have remained exactly the same.
I think baby gro numbers my be high but like you said nobody can tell till you do it.
Interesting you think my figures are high but don't know the answer yourself. The problem with working it out is that you don't know what the start weight was - only the dry weight. Typically bud will lose about 75% of it's weight in air drying and water cured bud about 85% but the difference isn't 10%.
Taking a hypothetical example, say we start out with 500g of wet bud, air dried that would be approximately 500g x 75% = 375-500 = 125g. Applying the same to the water cured would be 500g x 85% = 425-500 = 75g. 75g/125g = 0.6. So applying that to our known weight of 1lb, would be 16 ozs x 28 = 448g x 60% = 268.8/28 = 9.6ozs.
Hence my answer between 9-10 ozs.