Scavenger Chic

DIY Wall Propagation Station

• By Joan
• September 27, 2023
• 5 Comments

DIY Wall Propagation Station

Look what I found at my local thrift store, a box of 12 Erlenmeyer flasks.  I didn’t even know I wanted a bunch of flasks, but once I saw them,  I had to have them.  I had just the project…a wall propagation station.

A what?  A bunch of vases attached to something that you would propagate plants in…take a cutting of a plant, stick it in water until it grows roots.

If you’re interested, Amazon does sell a box of the flasks for $33.70.

Or, if you aren’t lucky enough to find a box of flasks, and $33 is kind of expensive,  I did find a suitable alternative that you could consider using for your project.

I’m using a 1/2″ MDF plywood for the frame and shelves of the propagation station just because that is what I had in my stash.  A 1 x 4 piece of wood would work just as well.

Lay out your bottles determining how wide you would like your propagation station to be,  and how much distance between each shelf.  While I could have had 4 bottles in height, it was at this point I decided to go with 3 x 3.

I then ran my MDF thru the table saw until I had 3 1/2 inch strips of wood.

Cut 2, 32 1/2 inch  side pieces of MDF.   Cut  5, 17 inch shelves.

Between shelves…5 1/2″,  9 1/2,”  9 1/2″, 5 1/2″.

On your 3 middle shelves, mark the exact center where each flask will sit.

I’m using a 1 1/2″ spade bit to drill a hole where each flask will sit.  If your glass has a larger neck, you may need to use a jigsaw or scroll saw to make the entire cutout.

From my drilled holes, I marked and cut straight lines to the edge of the board with a tabletop scroll saw.

If you have any ragged edges, now is the time to sand those smooth.

On the side boards I made a channel for which the shelves would sit, a dado cut.  Mark where you want your shelves to sit and the thickness of the shelf. On a table saw, adjust the height of the blade so that it does not penetrate more than half the thickness of the wood. Adjust the fence so that each cut will be identical. Once you’ve made your initial cut, move the fence ever so slightly until you’ve hollowed out a channel the thickness of the shelf. 

Add glue to the edges of your propagation shelves and insert into your newly cut dado channel.  Clamp to hold.

Once the glue was dry I added a few finish nails to the side of each shelf with the help of a pneumatic nailer. 

The top and bottom pieces are just nailed to the sides without the additional dado cut.  These 2 pieces will have to be slightly trimmed to make up for the dado channel on the other 3 shelves. 

I thought I was finished, but thinking the shelf was a little lacking I added a little bit of molding to the upper edge of the shelf.

Paint your propagation station the color of your choice.  Once again my color of choice is black.  If you used a nice wood for your frame you could just finish the frame with a couple coats of polyurethane.  This is black chalk paint with a vintage wax finish.

Time to load up the shelf with all the flasks.

For my finished project I really wasn’t ready to actually start my root propagation.   I  need to plan a trip to my son or daughter in laws house and steal a few cuttings from their plants.

For now, did I have any flowers?  Still blooming in my yard were  impatiens,  petunias and chrysanthemums.  None of these do particularly well as cut flowers.  These are the mums here, though their stems are rather short.

The heck with real flowers, these are a few fake flowers I had on hand to refresh an old wreath.

So now you’ve done all that work and you don’t want to fill your propagation station with just fake plants.  🙄  On Youtube I found a great listing of 36 plants you can grow in water.  You can find most of those plants below.

Until next time, stay inspired.

Here are some of the plants  that would grow in water.

Golden Pothos

String of Hearts

Dracaena

Coleus

Snake Plant

Dieffenbachia

Arrowhead Vine

Peace Lily

Spider Plant

Impatiens

Silver Pothos

Chinese Money Plant

Begonia

Prayer Plant

Aluminum Plant

African Violet

Swiss Cheese Plant

Philodendron

Lotus

Spiderwort

String of Pearls

Sweet Potato Vines

Narcissus

Fiddle Leaf Fig

Monstera

English Ivy

Moth Orchid

Caladium

Lucky Bamboo

Rosemary

Mint