What’s the best material to grow crystals? That depends. There is no single best material there. However, there are a few different materials that work well that you probably have at your house. Which one is best depends on what you’re looking for. If you want to grow crystals quickly, grow Epsom salt crystals. If you want a sweet treat, grow sugar crystals. If you want quartz styled crystals, grow alum crystals. If you don’t want to go to the store, use one of the ones you already have. Let’s explore some of the common crystal growing materials and their pros and cons.

1. Sugar Crystals

First is probably everyone’s favorite, sugar crystals. Sugar crystals are delicious, beautiful and fairly easy to grow. 

Sugar crystals are hexagonal pillar shaped crystals. Most of the time though it will be growing off of something so it will look like a pillar that ends in an upside down ‘V’. Sugar crystals will grow on all sorts of things from a stick for rock candy or on top of actual rocks as seen in this picture. They’ll even grow in an empty container which can be useful if you want to put some loose crystals on something like a cake. 

Grow some sugar crystals you can eat! Learn How to make rock candy.

2. Table Salt Crystals

Another common crystal growing material is table salt. Salt crystals are cubic in nature. Growing them can be a little bit difficult since you’ll often get a creeping salt effect where the salt will actually creep up over the edges of your growing container creating a crystalline layer over the whole thing. The effect is cool but it does slow the growth of the crystals that are growing in the solution.

3. Epsom Salt Crystals

Epsom salt crystals are some of the fastest and easiest crystals to grow making them great for beginner projects. They grow in thin needle like structures.

Epsom salt crystals grow so quickly that when grown properly you can have a full crystal forest in just a few hours. 

Try growing some yourself. How to make crystal eggshell geodes in 5 easy steps, or How to grow epsom salt crystals on rocks.

4. Alum Crystals

Alum is a pickling spice you can usually find in the spices section of your grocery store. It will form six sided crystals, They often look a lot like diamonds, and can be quite pretty.  

I’ve had pretty good luck dying alum crystals. You can get some really deep purple colors which creates amethyst style crystals. 

5. Borax crystals 

Borax crystals are an interesting one. They grow in an upward creeping style similar to salt crystals, although they don’t form as pretty or as clear of crystals as salt does. Oftentimes you’ll see borax crystals grown on pipe cleaners which allows you to grow it into all sorts of fun shapes.

And there you have it. Five common crystal materials you can use at home. I hope you found this helpful! While your here feel free to check out some of our awesome crystal projects you can grow at home.