There are a couple of different ways of growing salt crystals and I am going to take a look at two of my favorite so that you have and idea of how to you start growing salt crystals of your own. The good thing is that the methods for growing salt crystals can be applied to growing sugar crystals or any other crystal for that matter. The basic idea and principle behind it is exactly the same. You need a seed, and off of that seed you can start growing salt crystals.

Starting Your Seeds For Growing Salt Crystals

There are basically two methods for growing salt crystals and their seeds – the string method and the evaporation method. If it is your first time I highly recommend starting with the string method. Starting this way is a lot more predictable and is in general much easier than any other method. Regardless of which way you choose to get started you will need to start off with a fully saturated solution. What this means is that you will need water that has a much salt in it as it can possibly hold. The best way to do this is to take some water and put it on the stove on a low heat. You do not want it to boil as that will be counter productive, but rather be warm enough so that it quickly and readily takes up the salt. Pour in salt slowly until the water will not take any more and it simply goes to the bottom of the pan. Once you are absolutely sure that the water will take no more salt pour it off into a mason jar or glass container. The first step of growing salt crystals is complete.

If you choose to do the string method, take a pencil and rest it across the jar. To this pencil attach a piece of thin string and drop it into the jar. Take the jar and put in an easily accessible and warm place. All you need to do now is continually check the jar and make sure the solution stays fully salinated. Add water and salt; monitor the string for about 3 weeks. After the first couple days you should start to see crystals form on the string. This should grow slowly over the next couple weeks until eventually they form a large crystal. That is it. As you can see this method is extremely simple.

The next thing to try when growing salt crystals is the evaporation method. Take the solution and pour a little bit on a small plate. Let this sit until it evaporates. Ad more saturated water and let this evaporate. Within a couple days you should have small salt crystals that have formed at the bottom of the plate. Once these get big enough to be easily moved, you can place them in a mason jar with saturated water to make your crystals grow. This method is a bit more difficult, which is why I recommend using a string for your first time growing salt crystals.

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