# cultured pearls **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 3, 2001, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357 "2001-11-03T22:27:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FullOfFacts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/67e7ee/32.png) [@FullOfFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FullOfFacts)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/1 "2001-11-03T22:27:35Z")
hey everyone, I just wanted to know if you could make cultured pearls with any old oyster and if you could make it at home than can you tell me how to do it? thank you ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/2 "2001-11-03T22:48:45Z")
I suppose that theoretically, if you had a truly righteous saltwater tank setup, and if you were good enough at fishkeeping that you could keep oysters alive, you might be able to culture pearls at home. But normally, in order to make cultured pearls, you start with an oyster farm. > **[Page not found](https://www.fws.gov/southeast/page-not-found/)** > > Welcome to the new home for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southeast region. Unfortunately the page that you’re looking for can’t be found. If you’re looking for a PDF document like a fact sheet, brochure, or agreement please visit the reading... > [@](#): > > Cultured pearls are produced by oysters on oyster farms. To produce a cultured pearl, the process is normally started with a delicate operation in which highly skilled technicians implant a nucleus formed from the shell of a freshwater mussel. The implantation techniques are handed down from generation to generation, and there are only a small number of technicians who have the knowledge, skills, and expertise to successfully perform the procedure. The implanting operation occurs when the oyster is from 2 to 3 years old and consists of the insertion of spherical nucleus, 2 to 9 millimeters in diameter, as well as two pieces of epithelial tissue containing secreting glands, that are extracted from another oyster, which is thus sacrificed. And, you need a supply of freshwater mussels to provide the nucleus. So, no, this doesn’t really look like a home hobbyist thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/3 "2001-11-03T22:55:04Z")
Certainly the implantation technique is going to be the tricky thing; if you are a keen marine aquarist and are able to keep oysters, then it ought to be possible. The nucleus doesn’t _have_ to be made of mussel shell, that’s just what the commercial cultured pearl industry has chosen as being suitable. ---
**Author:** ![FullOfFacts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/67e7ee/32.png) [@FullOfFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FullOfFacts)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/4 "2001-11-03T23:09:26Z")
thanks you guys for answering back… wow, i didn;t know you had to put that much time into making a cultured pearl. i’ve seen on tv on a home shopping network that they were putting oysters in some container and if you let it sit for a couple of years than a pearl should appear… maybe it was false advertising?? Thanks alot though for taking time to respond ---
**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/5 "2001-11-03T23:28:57Z")
I believe many mollusks are capable of producing pearls. Which one produces the best, I don’t know. However, you may want to find out which one Mikimoto, one of the pioneers of cultured pearls, uses. Ten or twelve years ago I had the opportunity to tour the Mikimoto facility, in Toba, Japan. Watching the process was interesting. A technician surgically inserts a small pellet made from the shell of the Mississippi fresh water clam/mussel. After much trial and error this material was selected because it has the lowest rejection rate. For the oyster, the pellet, (grain of sand in nature), is like having a small pebble in your shoe, so it trys to force it out. The technician locates the pellet where it will cause maximum irritation, but be hardest for the oyster to get rid of. The secretion the oyster releases to ease the irritation is what makes the pearl. After the surgery, the oysters are placed in baskets, each in it’s own little cage, and returned to the sea. There is a very high mortality rate, so start with a bunch. It takes a long time to grow the pearls, (can’t remember how long), and then a great many are not marketable. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/6 "2001-11-04T04:24:25Z")
You would find keeping an oyster alive for several years to be one of the most boring things you could spend time on. I know people who farm oysters… more comonly called “rock farming” - it’s about that exciting. That’s when you let the sea do all the work as far as maintaining the water and growing the food goes. Doing it all yourself would be a decade or two until you could get the technique good enough to be worthwhile. Grow rock crystals instead! ---
**Author:** ![FullOfFacts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/67e7ee/32.png) [@FullOfFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FullOfFacts)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/7 "2001-11-04T04:27:02Z")
how do you grow rock crystals… i need to find something to do with all of this free time ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/8 "2001-11-04T07:53:32Z")
Easiest way to grow crystals is to buy the kit. We got one here; they are simple - my box says for ages 12 and up! They just basically hang a string into an aqueus solution of simple chemical salts like monoammonium phosphate and aluminum pottasium sulfate, maybe add some food coloring, et voila, fake emeralds and such! (I’ve got the Smithsonian Crystal growing set series 1) Should be easy to find on the net too. ---
**Author:** ![Cougarfang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c67d28/32.png) [@Cougarfang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cougarfang)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/9 "2001-11-04T08:31:27Z")
depends on what kind of rock… dissolve a lot of salt into a little water and let it evaporate, and that makes salt crystals… best if you let it evaporate in a black container, because the crystals show up very clearly then. they’re pretty, too 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/10 "2001-11-04T12:28:49Z")
Yup, I remember seeing a documentary about this. Japan seems to have invented this and it is extremely complex. Take an oyster at home, insert something, and you have a dead oyster. Not that you’d probably notice much difference. I mean, they’re not great conversationalists. I wouldn’t invite an oyster to my party. On the other hand this reminds me: Q. What noise annoys a noisy oyster most? (Say it fast) . . . . . . . . . . . . The answer should be obvious… . . . . . . . . . . A noisy noise annoys a noisy oyster most! (Try saying **that** fast! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/11 "2001-11-04T15:15:25Z")
I know, this is GQ. But I couldn’t pass the opportunity to mention that I used to live _right next_ to Toba and the Mikimoto Pearl Island[sup]tm[/sup]! The famed Mikimoto oysters used to spend winter in my town. From what I understood, the water temperature seems to be important. Which is why there aren’t all that many places where they are cultured. So add to your list of things you need: sea water that isn’t too hot in summer and too cold in winter, and a jagged coast line (preferably rias) to minimize currents. Oysters sometimes die when they hit against each other in the baskets. So I say, if you don’t live in the Ise-Shima region of Japan, forget about it. Well, anyway, I thought I could provide some more input, but **Duck Duck Goose** and **DaToad** covered pretty much all I know about pearl farming. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultured-pearls/91357/12 "2001-11-04T21:09:23Z")
It can’t be too hard… Sea World in Ohio for a while had an oyster tank, and would put on a show with divers going down all of 15 feet or so to retrieve a pearl. Every show, one of the guests would get a pearl to take home.