How do crystals grow?
Do you want to grow crystals, but you aren’t sure where to start or what to do to make sure your crystals turn out well? Here’s some basic information on crystal growing. I’ve provided links to recipes so you can start growing crystals. These instructions are general, so if your recipe calls for something special (like no vibrations or dark), be sure to follow those directions, too. In order to grow a crystal, you need to make a solution which maximizes the chances for the solute particles to come together and form a nucleus, which will grow into your crystal. This means you will want a concentrated solution with as much solute as you can dissolve (saturated solution). Sometimes nucleation can occur simply through the interactions between the solute particles in the solution (called unassisted nucleation), but sometimes it’s better to provided a sort of meeting place for solute particles to aggregate (assisted nucleation). A rough surface tends to be more attractive for nucleation than
