The single crystal of hydroxyethylammonium D-tartrate monohydrate (HEDT) is grown along the (1 1 0) plane using the Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy method. The powder X-ray diffraction and the high-resolution X-ray diffraction analyses are used to corroborate the growth plane and perfection of the crystallinity, respectively. The birefringence experiment has proven crystalline homogeneity and estimated birefringence value (𝚫n) is 0.109. The surface morphology of the grown crystal is examined by chemical etching analysis and irregular hillock patterns are found. The transmittance for the (1 1 0) plane of the HEDT is inspected by a UV-Vis analysis. The second harmonic generation efficiency of the HEDT crystal is 1.7 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP). The third-order nonlinear optical (TONLO) properties of the grown HEDT crystal are scrutinized by the Z-scan experiment. The estimated TONLO susceptibility of HEDT crystal is 6.827 × 10 −8 esu. The laser damage threshold value of HEDT is discovered to be 5.24 GW cm −2 . The 3D Hirshfeld surface visualizes the interaction between HEDT molecules and analyzes the distance from the surface of the molecule to the farthest and the nearest atom. The important contributions of crystal packing are explored by 2D-fingerprint plots.