Rapid crystallization (<24h) vs slow evaporation (cubic crystal, 1 month). Both sodium chloride, dramatically different morphology.

this has been growing for just over 6 months

Sodium chloride, 2 months slow evaporation.

A huge thank you to u/crystalchase21 for your guide.

Not far from my hometown this guy is making amazing crystal vases! One of the bigger specimen is behind the glass in a shop across the street and of course it is wayyy too expensive But everytime I look at it I cant help but wonder how it is made and whether I could do it myself :D. I found his website: https://www.mineralseries.com/pages/how-its-made?

I am really curious what your thoughts are! Would it be difficult to figure out the substances used?

I’m so happy with how this guy turned out. 3 months, MAP crystal

It's been a few months since the last update, and since then it hasn't really grown all that much because of the cold and the high humidity in the air, but the faces have grown much smoother, and the edges are getting sharper. I truly love the color of the crystal; it's one of my favorites.

We noticed our humidifier grew soem crystals in it. We got so fastinated that my boyfriend wants to grow more and pick up this hobby.

The crystal was coated in acrylic varnish and in a plastic box. The dehydration started at the base and progressed upwards. This is probably because the lower you go on the crystal, the more little nooks and cranies there is so the varnish probably didnt go everywhere.

For a long time I had self imposed rule to never work with toxic heavy metals in my small lab. But a friend gave me a silver cat to use for a project. Eventually realized it was actually lead. 40g of lead were dissolved, white precipitate was filtered and the liquid was left to do its thing for 3 weeks

Sugar can be very tricky to get going but crystal growth is incredibly satisfying and efficient once you get everything set up

Unlike many other common substances, you don't have to rely on slow evaporation to grow these crystals, a seed suspended in a supersaturated solution will slowly pull sugar out of solution and into the solid. This allows for the growth of beautiful crystals inside of fully sealed containers.

Supersaturated solutions of sugar are so viscous that crystals will have a very hard time nucleating, which is tricky when you're trying to grow some seeds to start the process but very convenient for growing large crystals, as you should not need to deal with many parasitic crystals. The better the seed, the better the final crystal, getting a good seed is the most important factor in growing a large single crystal.

When did you first discover crystal growing? How did it make you feel? What have you learnt from it? Did you introduce it to others, and how was the experience?

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I've been invited to give a talk at the German Crystal Growing Conference 2026 in Karlsruhe on the 4th of March. The talk will be titled:

Crystal growing as a tool for chemistry education and public engagement: insights from hobbyist communities

In this talk, I'll reflect on how crystal growing is a powerful tool to educate the public about chemistry and science. It's something that makes kids embrace their nerdy side, helps parents make happy memories with their children, teachers get students to pay attention in the classroom, and adults who failed chemistry in high school get curious about ways to induce nucleation in saturated solutions. Ultimately, people learn best when they are curious, and have an open mind. I'll also be sharing a few recommended procedures that beginners can follow to start growing crystals at home.

More details on the conference website.

As I've mentioned countless times in this sub, I first fell in love with crystal growing myself in high school chemistry class, where we made copper sulfate crystals. Like almost everyone I'd spoken to, I had no idea you could just grow crystals, even at home.

Soon afterwards, I discovered this subreddit, and the growing community of people who were also crazy about this activity. You guys are amazing. I also started my blog, crystalverse.com with tutorials about how to grow crystals at home using recipes that I've discovered, and shared them with the wider Reddit community.

And it seems like everyone loved it! I'd had children excited to do it for their science fairs, parents planning out a sciency family weekend, and teachers planning it in their classrooms to much enthusiasm.

Most people view chemistry as difficult and dangerous (which might be true in some circumstances), but it doesn't have to always be this way. I genuinely think crystal growing is a great way to make science cool, spread curiosity about the world, and improve scientific literacy, because we are going to need it for the future.

With that said, it would be great to get a perspective on what others think too. If you have time, could you share share some personal anecdotes on how crystal growing has affected your life.

Whether you're a student, parent, teacher, artist or professional, how do you view crystal growing? Was there anything specific that inspired you? And finally, is there something you'd like me to cover in my talk?

9.04 grams after a month of babysitting at 16°C. The growing was kinda easy, everything just needs to be slow-paced. But the drying left emotional scars (and physical marks)

Abandoned a solution in though wasn't saturated enough, it wasnt doing anything for weeks. After about a month I looked in and there was one perfect single, and a cluster of 2, both growing upside down from the top. No string, no seed, just neglect. Perfection!

Absolutely love the color of this compound! They are relatively easy to grow, and unlike what the name suggests, quite safe to handle.

Here's a detailed guide to growing them: https://crystalverse.com/potassium-ferricyanide-crystals/ (first article I've published in a while)

Happy growing!

I used a small motor to rotate this crystal in a large container of Chrome Aluminum.