How To Make A Crystal Garden With Bluing

Just a geeky mom who loves to share science with her kids. She teaches how to do simple science experiments that anyone can do from home.

Easy instructions to make a salt crystal garden

I was recently introduced to growing a salt crystal garden by a friend of mine. She had beautiful cauliflower-like blooms growing in a dish on her countertop. Once I saw it, I decided that it was a must-do project for the kids and me. I had most of the items I needed to grow the garden lying around the house, and the time spent to make it was minimal. It is so easy, but yet so satisfying to watch the crystals in the garden grow.

This would be great for kids looking for a science fair project, but even without the science fair, it's fun. My kids were mesmerized by the growing crystals and seeing how they changed each day. So without further ado, here are instructions on how to make your own salt crystal garden.

Supplies

Salt
Ammonia
Mrs. Stewarts Bluing (find this in the laundry section of the store)
Warm Water
Sponges
Container to grow crystals (glass or plastic work well)
Food Coloring (optional)

Instructions

Day One

Wet the sponges and squeeze them out. Next, cut the sponge into small sections that are about an inch or two big. Then place the individual sponge pieces into the container you'll use to grow your garden. It depends on the size of your container how many pieces you use. Our containers each had one sponge in them. We tried to get creative with the building the base of our garden, but to be honest, the gardens with sponges stacked on each other took longer for the crystals to form. Crystals still grew, but the results were a bit slower.

Sponges arranged in the plastic container.

Next, for each crystal garden take 2 tablespoons of salt, ammonia, liquid bluing, and warm water and combine them in a measuring cup. Stir until you can no longer get the salt to dissolve. All of the salt won't dissolve, so don't try. Just mix it until you feel it's as dissolved as it's going to get.

After the solution is combined, pour it over the sponges. When you get to the mucky blue salt at the bottom, drop it on top each of the sponges. Make sure to use all of the mixture.

If you'd like to use food coloring, now is the time. A few drops here and there on top of the salt blobs will suffice. We found that blue worked best. Green turned teal blue, and red and yellow really didn't leave a color at all. If you don't use food coloring the crystals will be white which is quite stunning.

I'm not exaggerating when I say the crystals will begin blooming within the hour. The overnight results are amazing.

Crystals beginning to bloom after just a couple of hours.

Crystal Garden in the morning. Only 10 hours after starting.

Day Two

Add two more tablespoons of salt to the places on the sponges that crystals didn't form. The crystals will continue to form throughout the day.

Day Three and Beyond

Prepare a half batch of the original mixture and pour it into the bottom of the container. This is the food that will keep the crystals blooming. You can continue to add the mixture every few days and your crystal garden will grow for in infinite amount of time. Ours grew for over 3 months until we decided we our needed the counter space back.

The crystal garden is growing up the sides of the container.

Crystal Garden Hints and Tips

The crystals are very fragile. They will collapse if you touch them. They may collapse when you move them. No worries though, they will grow back when you "feed" your garden.
You can add food coloring at any time, but it will dissolve your crystals. The good news is they will grow again each time you add more of the ammonia, salt, bluing mixture.
Ammonia is not needed to get the crystals to grow. It actually just aids in the evaporation process. Leave ammonia out if you wish, but realize it will take longer for the crystals to form.
After days of feeding your garden it may begin to try to escape your original container by growing up the sides. That's ok, just put the container inside a larger container like a cake pan.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the crystals. After months of feeding the crystals we tried to kill them off by just adding water, instead of the solution. Guess what, they still grew back for days.
Any porous substance can be used instead of sponges; charcoal or lava rock would make a good substitution.
Air needs to flow freely around the crystal garden for it to grow, so don't cover it up.

Put food coloring in different places to have both white and blue flowering crystals.

The Science Behind the Crystal Garden

Definitions

Soluble – easily dissolved, especially in water.

Crystalize – to change from a liquid to a solid form that is made up of crystals.

Evaporation – to change from a liquid state to a gaseous state.

Colloidal Suspension – A substance where the particles of the solution are mixed, but they are not dissolved.

Porous Substance – Any substance having small spaces or holes through which air or liquid may pass.

Capillary action – The ability for liquid to travel through small spaces without the help of forces like gravity.

A month later and this crystal garden is still blooming.

Now that you know the science terms here's how they apply to the salt crystal garden. First off, salt is a soluble crystal, therefore, it's a crystal that can be dissolved in water. In any salt and water solution when the liquid evaporates the salt will crystalize. Think of a saltwater fish tank, in all saltwater fish tanks a white powdery crystal substance can be found at the top. This is because water in the tank has dissolved leaving salt crystals at the top of tank. You can test this for yourself by dissolving 1 teaspoon of salt in one cup of hot water. After a few days, some of the water will evaporate and white crystals will form at the point where the water originally started.

Your crystal garden will start to look like cauliflower if you don't feed it for a several days. It's still pretty.

In the recipe for the crystal garden large amounts of salt are added in proportion to the amount of liquid. You can see this just from the fact that when mixed it is impossible to get all of the salt to dissolve.

Because there is so little liquid, the crystals will form quickly. The Mrs. Stewarts bluing acts as a colloidal suspension in the mixture. Since the bluing particles are not dissolved, they form the nucleus of the crystals and allow the salt garden to bloom around it rather than form chunky solid salt crystals.

As mentioned earlier, the ammonia aids in rapid evaporation. It not only evaporates quickly, but it also helps the water and liquid bluing to evaporate quickly.

On day three and beyond you should add the mixture to the bottom of the container. This helps keep the crystals from being disturbed. Because the sponges are porous, the mixture will be drawn up through the sponges by capillary action. This feeds the crystals, and keeps them growing for months as long as you remember to feed them. If you don't feed them, the crystals stay for a while, but their appearance changes dramatically.

So whether you are planning your next science project, or just want to have fun growing a crystal garden this project is a must try.

What are you waiting for? Start your crystal garden today!

Shellie on July 27, 2020:

Can the crystals be preserved or "sealed" somehow without damage? Example: epoxy, laquer, glue, etc...

Jahra. on March 15, 2020:

Another set of questions:

Can I use some other blueing product other than Mrs Stewart's ?

Does the blueing affect the coloring of the crystals ?

What'll happen if I don't put blueing in the solution ?

Is it possible to keep the crystals as they are without having to feed them over and over again ?

Can transparent liquid resin be poured on the garden to add a protective layer ?

Jahra on March 14, 2020:

Hi ! May I ask what salt have you used ? And which section of the grocery store do you find ammonia ?

grant on March 01, 2018:

so is there a different way to add, do you have to mix the salt together

Kathy Hull (author) from Bloomington, Illinois on May 04, 2016:

I got Mrs. Stewarts Blueing at my local grocery store, but they also sell it on Amazon.

Jeffery on May 03, 2016:

Agreed with Jeff .

jeff on May 03, 2016:

WHERE CAN U GET MRS STEWARTS BLUEING DUDE!! THEY DO NOT SELL IT ANYMORE !!

Glenn Stok from Long Island, NY on August 03, 2015:

This is great. I actually remember doing this when I was a kid. But then again, I always played around with experiments similar to this at that age.

I have a friend who has a nine year old daughter and I'm passing this hub on to her. I think her daughter will love it. And it's a great learning process too.

Kathy Hull (author) from Bloomington, Illinois on June 27, 2015:

I don't see why not, I actually think it would turn out pretty cool in an aquarium.

Susan Britton from Ontario, Canada on June 27, 2015:

Would this work in an empty aquarium. I have 2 that I dont want fish in anymore? I love this idea.

Liz Elias from Oakley, CA on June 25, 2015:

I vaguely recall doing something similar when I was a kid. I'm definitely passing this along for the grandkids to try.

But, I'll have to wait until later; for some reason, all the various share buttons and not visible on this little notebook computer.

Voted up +++ Congrats on the EC

Vic Dillinger on June 25, 2015:

What a fun article!

Karen A Szklany from New England on June 25, 2015:

Thank you for reviving my interest in this project. I've known about it and haven't done it with my daughter yet. Will try it today.

It was very useful to know that I could leave out the ammonia. Not a fan of the stuff, so we can be patient about the evaporation process. Can't wait to do it....may wait for her friend to come and each of them can make one.

Venkatachari M from Hyderabad, India on June 24, 2015:

Awesome idea of growing artificial gardens in your home. It is very interesting and exciting too even for grown ups, not to mention children.

Thanks for sharing it. Voted up and awesome and sharing G+

Rota on June 24, 2015:

Love this! Something really different to do and watch grow

Factable News from Lagos on June 24, 2015:

Lovely and nice, maybe i should try it out .

FlourishAnyway from USA on June 16, 2015:

This seems like a cool summer science project to do with the kids. Graf hub! Voted up and more!