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Once, I accidentally grew a bed of salt crystals in a plastic tumbler left on a windowsill. Sadly I can't find the photos but they were closer to rectangular and clearer than the "bad" examples mentioned in this post. Diameters reached ~500mm on the large ones. Was I vastly luckier than I realized at the time, or is it all a bit easier to get right if you're not aiming for completely freestanding crystals (vs. a bed)?

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Were the conditions significantly different from what the author described? I would imagine if it was relatively cool but also humid, you may have just matched good conditions for growth.

So you probably did get lucky, but depending on the conditions maybe not extremely lucky.

Ok I need to know.. how does one accidentally grow half-a-meter crystal? And how much does that weigh? And what kind of plastic tumblers do you have for that? :D

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