Culturing

Natural pearls are pearls produced naturally without any human intervention, while cultured pearls are pearls produced with or without the insertion by man of a bead by grafting, followed by maintaining the mollusk in culture until the pearl is harvested.

Most of the genuine pearls available in jewelry stores are cultured—which means they were grown on a pearl farm. Pearl farms can be set up in rivers, lakes, or oceans, depending on whether you want to grow freshwater or saltwater pearls. To grow properly, oysters and mollusks need clear, tranquil waters at a temperature of about 20-30 C (or about 68-86 F).