Introduction: Water Propping Station From Light Bulbs
Hello everyone,
I absolutely love the current craze with indoor plants, unfortunately with that came an unbelievable inflation in price of things like propagation stations.
In this Instructable I would like to show you how I made a simple hanging water propagation station from an old blown Edison style bulb ( unfortunately these LED bulbs don't seem to last very long, luckily it gives me an excuse to find some new ways to up-cycle them! )
Lets get started...
Step 1: What You Will Need:
To make this Instructable you will need the following:
- An old/blown light bulb ( preferably "Edison" style )
- Bronze welding rod, I used a 3mm one and I wouldn't recommend going thinner than 2mm as the weight of the water might bend it out of shape when hanging
- Macrame cord for hanging.
- A butane torch, You can make this Instructable without the torch if you use thinner rods but it does make bending a lot easier.
- Some cone shaped Dremel mounted grinding stones.
- Pliers
- Steel wool and some sanding paper ( around 400 grit )
- Metal/Compounding polish
- Safety gloves and eye protection
* Amazon links included as reference to products that I've used.
Step 2: Why Water Propagation:
"We can all agree that free plants are the best and what better way to multiply your collection than starting your own plants.
You may have a friend or neighbor with a species you desire or just want more of your favorites. Many types of cuttings produce roots growing in water. This is an easy way to grow some species.
Many plants do not come true from seed or are difficult to germinate, but there are plants that can grow in water very easily.
The resulting new plants will be true to the parent plant because they are clones made from its vegetative material.
The best part of starting plants in water is that pest and disease issues are reduced versus soil propagation.
Soil is prone to fungal issues, soil gnats and other problems. Clean water has none of these pathogens and, if changed frequently, will not develop disease.
Once plants have a full healthy root system, they can be moved to a soil medium. Rooting usually takes place in 2 to 6 weeks."
Step 3: Hollowing Out the Bulb:
Instructions can also be found on my previous Instructable: Repurpose Old/Blown Light Bulbs
You will need some common tools like a screwdriver and snip pliers. Now it's time to dawn your gloves and eye protection as we will be breaking the back of the bulb open.
- Start by gripping the brass screw and give it a twist back and forth this should free up the adhesive and break the wires leading to the filament.
- Once the brass screw has been pulled off you will see an indent with a glass tube sticking out with wires, use your screwdriver to break it away. This will create the opening in your bulb.
- Using a screwdriver you can carefully enlarge the hole a bit so that you can shake the filament out.
- Now you can wash out your bulb with some tap water being careful of the sharp bits of glass leftover.
- Using a Dremel with the grinding stones you can start to enlarge the hole in the bulb, make sure you have all your protective equipment on as the bulb can easily shatter.
The surface you are grinding must always be cooled with water otherwise it will crack. To do this I fill the bulb to the brim with water and set my Dremel to the lowest speed, take it slow and don't put any pressure on it.
Because the glass is so thin this process is quite quick and I have never had a bulb crack.
- When you're done you can use some 400 grit sanding paper to smooth the edges.
Step 4: The Bulb Holder:
Now we need to make the holder for the hollowed out bulb.
First step is to slip on some protective gloves as we will now need to heat up our bronze rod with the butane torch to a dull red color.
If you are comfortable working with scorching hot metal you can take pliers and start bending the rod to roughly the shape of the bulb, otherwise quench your bronze rod in cold water after heating it before you start bending.
After bending into a water drop like spiral insert the bulb to check where you need to adjust.
If you feel the bronze rod gets too hard to bend, reheat and quench in water to anneal it again.
-> Always treat your metal as if it's HOT! <-
Nothing ruins a fun project quicker than a burnt hand.
Once it fits nice and snug around the bulb you can bend a loop for the macrame and cut off the excess rod with some pliers.
Step 5: That Shine:
After all of the heating your bronze rod will have changed color and oxidised some, now we need to get that shine back!
I find the easiest way to brighten the brass is to take a piece of fine steel wool add a dab of metal/automotive compounding polish on it and vigorously rub away that dullness.
Sometimes there are places that heats up a little too much and leaves a dark spot, to get rid of this you can just use some fine sanding paper or if its not too stubborn applying some vinegar to it also gets rid of it.
After rubbing it with the polish and steel wool you can leave it for a minute for the polish to dry and then wipe it down with a soft cloth.
Now that you have a nice shiny holder you can reinsert the bulb.
Step 6: Macrame:
Now for the macrame, this is unfortunately not my strong suit so I kept it really simple...
Because I will be hanging it from the ceiling it needed to be quite long so I started with approximately a two meter length of macrame rope and folded in half.
I then made evenly spaced knots along its length and frayed the ends.
To attach it to the holder I just used a simple Lark's head knot around the bronze rod.
It will be suspended from the ceiling using a cup hook screw, screwed into a ceiling support beam.
Step 7: Start Propping:
Now you are ready to start propagating!
Fill up the bulb with some clean water and add your cuttings.
Some good candidates to prop:
Most common kitchen herbs like mint, basil, celery, parsley etc. do exceptionally well in a water propagation station and also house plants like:
- Pothos
- Swedish ivy
- Fiddle leaf fig
- Baby’s tears
- Impatiens
- Coleus
- Grape ivy
- African violet
- Christmas cactus
- Polka dot plant
- Begonia
- Creeping fig
Step 8: Enjoy!
I highly recommend making a few of these with different shaped bulbs and hanging them in clusters so that you have a constant supply of rooted cuttings to grow your indoor jungle!
I hope you guys enjoyed this Instructable and if you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment bellow.
Please share your own creations with us.
Happy making!
Participated in the
Water Speed Challenge
