It is definitely the chilled pull that makes a big difference for me. I think several factors will determine if we get crystalization or long needles:

- Amount of plant material in the extract (less is better, chilled short pulls help here).

- Amount of citric acid (too much and crystals will form to quickly to grow big, too little and complete crystallization may not happen)

- Temperature: avoid quick temperature swings while xtals are forming

- Shaking: With a lot of shaking xtals could be smaller and maybe grow faster

Chilled solvent seems to help a lot with no major downsides. I also notice the xtals did not stick to the walls as when I do room temp pulls.

What really convinces me is that when people have different cacti, or even whole cacti, chilled pulls should be a lot more robust to plant material variability. This is why I want the published TEK to use chilled ethyl acetate, so there are fewer potential issues in the future.