Turn a Plastic Bag and a Stocking Into a Christmas Tree Water!

In this short and easy instructable, you will find out how to turn plastic bags and unused stockings into an automatic, gravity-fed tree watering system, capable of holding almost 2 gallons of water at one time! The basic design works by feeding tubing into 2 separate plastic bags that are fitted to your stockings, connecting the tubes, and directing that into your tree. Simple and easy! There is a single module setup if you only want one, or are planning to have them completely hidden from view so you do not care about the amount of tubing.

1. hot glue and hot glue gun
2. duct tape (unseen but necessary)
3. around 20 ft of tubing, but differs depending on setup (1/4,3/8, or 1/2 ft)
4. scissors (preferably stronger than normal)
5. 2 stockings that you are willing to rip

1. Line the bag up to the stocking, such that when cut, then bag will fit smoothly inside it.
2. Cut the bag all the way through

1. Heat up your hot glue gun
2. Hold the end of your bag about and inch off the ground
3. slowly, run the hot glue gun, along the side of the bag, along the length of the open section, sealing the plastic together.
4. When you think you are done, you can check by either filling it up with water or blowing into it, and seeing if any leaks out. Once it is water/airtight, you are ready for the next step.

1. Slide a small cutting mat into your plastic bag (to prevent the hot glue gun from making a hole all the way through.
2. Cut a section of tubing either
3. long enough to reach the intersection between the two places where you will hang your stockings (if you choose the two module option)
4. long enough to reach the bottom of your tree with some slack (if you choose the one module option)
5. Put the hot glue gun to the mat, and make a hole slightly smaller than the diameter of your tubing.
6. Take out the cutting mat, and slide the tube into the hole.
7. Seal the tube with hot glue, wrapping part of the bag around for a better seal.
8. Cover the whole seal/part where the tube meets the bag with duct tape to ensure that it is watertight.
9. Again, test if it is watertight by pouring water in over a sink. Make sure none of the water is flowing from the outside. If it is, add more duct tape/hot glue and try again.

STOP!

Either:

1. Go back and redo steps 1-3 with another stocking if you want a 2 module set-up for double the amount of water. Once you have two, you can move onto the next step.
2. Skip to the last step. If you chose the 1 module option, you’re done! (Unless you want more indiquas modules)

1. Measure a section of tubing long enough to reach from, the height of your stockings to the ground.
2. Cut this section of tubing as shown in the first picture, taking an angled section off of both sides, meeting in one point. It should look from the side like a snake’s tongue if that helps.
3. take one section of tubing and hot glue it to one side that you cut off, as seen in the second photo. It might be hard to keep them together, but this step is vital!
4. you should now have just one “hole” empty in the connection. Slide the tube from the other stocking slightly into this hole to make it easier to connect. Then, slather hot glue all over the whole connection sand let dry.
5. finish the connection off with lots of duct tape wrapped around.
6. Again, try the watertightness test. Pour some water into a bag over the sink and see what happens. Add more tape/glue if it is not watertight.

1. Take the end of the tube and tape it firmly to the tree stand. You should not be able to turn the end part in any direction. It should be facing downwards rigidly.

1. Make a hole in the toe of each stocking as seen in the picture. Make sure to keep the hole to roughly the diameter of the tube
2. Insert the bag and tube through the hole.
3. Expand the bag flat once it is in the stocking. If it falls out, you made the hole too small. You will then need to hot glue or sew the bottom back together and try this step again.
4. Hang Your Stocking!

Once you have hung the stockings, you’re good to go. When needed, open the top of the plastic bags and pour water through them until they are full. Then, reseal the bags. You’ll know you have to refill when you see the water level below that of the clear tube, indicating no flow from the bag.