How to Build a DIY Propagation Station

Disclosure Pot & Prop earns a commission when you buy through the Amazon links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which products get recommended or what we say about them, and we have not been given any of them. How this site is funded.

A note on what this page will and will not do. You are here to build something, so this page sells components — tubes, racks, hardware — and does not end with a link to a finished station you could have bought instead. That would waste your time on purpose. If you decide midway that buying is easier, the roundup is here and there is no shame in it; this page will not nudge you there.

Build one: tubes in a drilled plank, fifteen minutes

1. 1Get bulk test tubes. 15 by 150 mm, 20 ml, is the standard size and they come in packs of thirty for very little. Corks are optional and mostly get lost.
2. 2Find a plank. Anything about 2 inches thick and as long as you want the station: an offcut, a chopping board, a piece of scaffold board.
3. 3Drill holes slightly larger than the tube diameter — a 16 to 17 mm bit for 15 mm tubes — spaced about 2 inches apart. Do not drill all the way through, or the tubes fall out the bottom.
4. 4Sand and oil it if you want it to look deliberate. Ten more minutes.
5. 5Drop the tubes in. Done. The tubes lift out for cleaning, which is the property that matters most.

Build two: a wall-hung version, an hour

The same drilled plank, mounted on a wall. In a rented apartment that means adhesive hooks rather than screws, and the arithmetic is on the wall station page: a loaded station is only a few pounds, so an 11 lb hook is comfortable and two hooks are better than one. Drill two holes through the back of the plank for a cord or hanging bracket before you fill it with tubes.

Build three: jars and a hose clamp rail, a weekend

For thicker cuttings — monstera nodes especially — tubes are the wrong vessel. A rail of jars solves it: a length of timber, a row of stainless hose clamps screwed to it, and jars clamped into them. Each jar releases with a screwdriver for cleaning. It is more work and it is the only home-built version that handles a monstera node with an aerial root attached.

What you actually need

What to avoid building

• Anything glued permanently. Vessels that cannot be removed cannot be cleaned, and every propagation vessel eventually goes cloudy. Removability is the single most important design property.
• Holes drilled all the way through a thin board. The tube falls out the moment you lift the station.
• Narrow-necked bottles. They look wonderful and you cannot get a brush inside them, so they become single-use.
• Anything that will not sit flat. A station that tips when you take one tube out will be tipped over eventually.

Every pick, in full

We have not handled any of these. What follows is what each listing publishes, what that means once you put a watered pot on it, and who should buy something else.

1. Building your own station

20 ml Glass Test Tubes with Cork Stoppers and Brush, 30 pack

The component, not the product. At 15 mm outside diameter it is the same tube every commercial rack on this page is built from, at a fraction of the cost.

Check price on Amazon

#ad · Price shown on Amazon. How we are funded

What the listing publishes

20 ml, 15 by 150 mm tubes; cork stoppers and a cleaning brush included

Against a 10-inch pot

No weight rating is published for this product, so there is nothing to check. That counts against it here rather than being treated as neutral.

15 by 150 mm is the standard propagation tube dimension. Knowing the number means you can buy a rack and tubes separately, or drill a board and make one, and know they will fit.

The brush is the part that matters. Algae in a 15 mm tube cannot be reached with a finger, and a tube you cannot clean is a tube you throw away.

This is the pick for the do-it-yourself route on this site, which monetizes components only and never a finished station dressed up as a project.

What is good

• +The standard 15 by 150 mm tube, so it fits commercial racks
• +Includes the cleaning brush that makes tubes reusable
• +Thirty tubes for less than a five-tube station

What is not

• −No stand, so you are building or buying one
• −Cork stoppers swell and are not needed for propagation
• −Thin laboratory glass breaks more easily than a jar

Skip it if you want something that works out of the box. These are components, and a five-tube desktop station is the finished answer.

2. Volume propagation on a bench

80 ml Glass Test Tubes with 24 Hole Rack, 24 pack

Bigger tubes and a rack included, which is the highest cutting count per dollar on this site and looks completely industrial.

Check price on Amazon

#ad · Price shown on Amazon. How we are funded

What the listing publishes

24 tubes, 80 ml, 25 by 200 mm, supplied with a 24-hole rack

Against a 10-inch pot

No weight rating is published for this product, so there is nothing to check. That counts against it here rather than being treated as neutral.

25 mm outside diameter takes cuttings that a 15 mm tube will not, including most philodendron nodes. 80 ml also means a fill lasts far longer between changes.

Twenty-four positions on roughly 10 by 5 inches is about 0.35 square feet, which works out near 69 cuttings per square foot and is by a distance the densest arrangement anywhere on this site.

It is laboratory equipment and it looks it. That is a feature on a workbench and a problem in a living room.

What is good

• +A 25 mm tube takes thicker cuttings than standard propagation tubes
• +80 ml holds water long enough to halve the maintenance
• +Rack included at a lower price than most five-tube stations

What is not

• −Looks like laboratory equipment because it is
• −A plastic rack, not wood
• −24 tubes is more than most people will ever fill

Skip it if the station is going somewhere visible. This belongs on a workbench, and a wooden five-tube rack is what belongs on a shelf.