Grow your own Magic Crystal Tree

If you found an ad for this instructable in the back of a comic book, it would read something like:
"Amaze your friends by growing a crystal tree out of common table salt and a few other ingredients available from the grocery store"

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Gathering the ingredients is probably the most difficult step. To grow your Magic Crystal Tree, you'll need:
- Mrs Stewart's Bluing
- Table salt
- Household Ammonia (the kind with no soap added)
- Cardboard (not corrugated)
- Bowl
- Water
- Measuring spoon
- Food Coloring (optional)

The bluing is the hardest item to find but can be found in the cleaning section of many grocery stores. You can find the ammonia close by.

The cardboard I used came as packing material from a new shirt, or the backing from a paper notepad. Cereal box cardboard might work, but it's thinner & has printing on one side...

Depending on the temperature & humidity of your location, the ammonia is optional, but speeds up the crystal growth -- the tree in this Instructable started "sprouting" in less than an hour. Without ammonia, it may take a couple of days to start.

Step 2: Cardboard Shapes for the Crystals to Grow On

For this Instructable, I made a tree formed out of two cardboard triangles, roughly 2" at the base and about 3.5" high. If you'd prefer some form of unspeakable tentacled beasty, send me a picture!

Cut a slot from the top to the middle in one piece, and from the bottom to the middle in the other. The slots allow the two pieces to be assembled into a 3D shape.

Make sure that whatever shape you create can stand up by itself.

Step 3: (Optional) Color the tree

If you like, you can add a little color to your shape by putting drops of food coloring on the edges. The food coloring will soak into the cardboard.

Step 4: Adding the "Magic" Solution

The "Magic" Solution -- Mix together:
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon bluing
- 1/2 tablespoon household ammonia

I put everything into a small bottle that could be shaken to mix the ingredients.

Again, the ammonia is optional, but I'd recommend it.

Find a place where you can watch your magic tree grow undisturbed for a few days.

Put the tree into the bowl and add the solution

Step 5: Wait...

Wait...

Wait a little longer...

More waiting...

(First sign of growth showed up at around the one hour mark...)

Step 6: Time Passes

The tree after 12 hours.

You can keep your crystal shape growing indefinately, by adding more water/salt solution to the bowel.

Step 7: What's Going On?

The salt solution is wicked up into the cardboard tree via capillary action. Water evaporates from the surface of the tree, forcing the salt to crystallize out.

Mrs. Stewart's Bluing is a colloid -- tiny particles suspended in water (think of glitter in a snow globe, but much, much smaller). The tiny particles make it easier for the salt crystals to form.

The ammonia helps speed up the evaporation process, which makes the crystals grow faster.

There's a more detail explanation available from Mrs. Stewart's Bluing at http://www.mrsstewart.com/pages/explanation.htm

Step 8: Filming the Crystal Tree Growing

I set up a Canon PowerShot A40 with remote capture software to take one picture every minute.

The halogen desk lamp overhead is an attempt to provide a consistent light source, as well as warming things up a little (to speed up evaporation).

Comments

[kittivalentine]

Two questions:
1) You said the ammonia was optional, depending on humidity, etc. I live in one of the rainiest cities in America so it's always very humid here, so would that make the ammonia more or less important?
2) If I wanted to make little kits as gifts, where I pre-mixed the solution and kept it in a bottle, do you know if it would keep and for how long?
Thanks! BTW, great instructable!

[panakanic]

My Mom used to do this for us, when we lived in Seattle, back in the 1960's, and it worked fine-she always used ammonia.. We used charcoal briquets for the base then, but any thing that is somewhat porous will work for the crystals to grow on. Using briquets gave kind of a fairy-land look to the creation. Mom would put the briquets and solution in a pie plate, and let my sis and I put drops of liquid food color on the briqs to make the different colored areas, Magic to little kid! Just make sure they don't try to play in it!

[sylbl12]

I remember buying kits for my children, am looking for activities for my grandchildren over the holidays, this is definitely a good idea, thanks for sharing.

[neetz]

i just have a question, can you use horse bluing? the kind that makes them white?


thanks

[onyx95]

Oh my goodness I haven't done this in such a long time. My kids are going to love it.
Thanks so much for sharing it.

[museumoftechno]

Does the bluing do anything, apart from colouring the salt? Would the project work without it?

Thanks!

[ggibbs2]

the bluing is a colloid aka the crystal seed you need it to grow the crystals it otherwise is just a mix trust me it doesn't grow a thing.

[tiag79]

This looks interesting but I'm not too sure I want to try this just yet. Maybe when my 4 year old it 5 or 6. She'll probably think it's candy from the coloring, lol. But I must admit that I think this would be a nice science experiment for my 13 yr old to give a try.

[superMacaroni]

Um...

It's bowl, not bowel.

[claudiapatx]

Cool. I remember buying kits that we did this with as a kid in the 70's...Magic Grow or something like that. They really made a killing off of us kids, didn't they?

[CraftBear]

Would it work with any shape "tree" do you think?

[mik3]

It should work with any shape, but it's best as long as the material is porous ...
As a kid, we used charcoal briquettes, and there's another instructable that uses a toilet paper tube: http://www.instructables.com/id/Salt-Crystal-Garden/

[RMDelete]

I think I just had a "bowel" movement here :)

[mik3]

Doh!
Hmmm, if I fix the instructable, nobody will know what you're talking about
;-)

[D00M99]

I see in the video that the crystals fall off sometimes. Any way to prevent?

Also, any scientific reason as to why this happens? Very interested in the process.

[mik3]

The crystals are pretty fragile, so when get too big they break & fall off by themselves. Growing them in a place where they don't get jarred too much can help.

[Oliver Larsen]

So, it's a great instructable, undoubtly gonna try it. BUT, I'm from Denmark, and therefore I don't understand what "Bluing" is. Can you explain for a Dane?

Thanks.

[CamillaLuvzMusic]

Denmark!! Me too!! Well no my mom is, dad isn't, i'm half-and-half!

[Ironfounderson]

It's a additive used to make whites whiter in the laundry.  It was quite popular years ago, but not widely used now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluing_%28fabric%29

[Oliver Larsen]

Uh, I see. Do you think chlorine could be a good alternative?

[TANZMEISTER]

DO NOT EVER MIX BLEACH WITH AMMONIA~!!!@!!!!

If you don't believe it from me, then read this.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/toxicchemicals/a/Mixing-Bleach-And-Ammonia.htm

[cdeerinck]

 No, no, no!  Ammonia tries to evaporate, and will carry the chlorine with it.  I almost died once from breathing chlorine.  Probably the worst way imaginable to die. 

Also, don't try bleach (another whitener), as mixing that with ammonia makes truly dangerous things.  Read here: www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A795611

[Ironfounderson]

No, I wouldn't think so.

[alienpsychomom]

Do you think you might be able to use the cone styrofoam? The food dyes would certainly be absorbed. I will go ahead and try it unless you know why it would not. I will email you a picture of it if it turns out great. Thank you for the idea because I have grandkids that would it.

[skylane]

 YEARS ago, my grandmother and I did this very same thing.
We used pieces of brick.  Made a little pile like a small mountain range.
Then the ''forests'' grew!!  Place drops of different colors of food coloring
in different locations for a multi color effect

[briannamarie21]

uuuhhhgggh!!? i need your help.? my tree is taking forever to grow, help me, did i do something wrong? HELP! its a goood idea thoughh(:

[MissMush]

Just though I would jump in here:  If you are trying to find the Mrs. Stewarts Bluing - check this list of all the stores in Canada/USA that stock it!!

http://www.mrsstewart.com/pages/wheretofind.htm

[canadian nh]

my dear, just now I saw the picture of ammonia used here it is liquid, it isn't available here liquid it is powder, so can I use it?, if so liquid will be very little only 1 spoon water, salt and powder ammonia will not desolve well isn't it? reply me pls thanks

[seamountie]

canadian nh....from another canuck...you can get liquid ammonia north of 49, but you may have to go to a janitorial supply  store to get it without soap

[JKibs95]

"...adding more water/salt solution to the bowel." serious rotflol

[mik3]

Well, it's one way of having fun while sitting 'round & watching the crystals grow... ;-)

[JKibs95]

Maybe not "fun" per se.

[limpport]

 Unless you define "fun" as a nasty burning sensation...

[a.nony.mouse]

did you knock the crystal growth from the side of the bowl back into the solution? that's kind of what it looks like.

[suzzy519]

hey pretty cool !!

[Rhelirien]

Does the salt get hard? Is this something you can keep hanging around for a long time or is it more of a novelty that you throw away when its done growing?

[mambogirl5]

that is awesome makes me want to make one right now even though its late!!!

[gibbon]

Nice time lapse video! I want to make one!

[mambogirl5]

same here!!!!!!!

[StarFace]

This is fantastic!

And to think I bought one of these for my younger brother a few years back and paid nearly 10 quid for it when I could of made my own. And your finished product looks a hell of a lot better than the packet one I bought!!

By the way, I live in the UK and I'm just wondering if you have any idea if there is an alternative of some description to Mrs Stewarts Bluing? =S Or even if you know where you could get Mrs Stewarts Bluing over here because right now I can not find ANYWHERE that has any idea at all what it is or where I can get hold of it!

Thanks!