Growing Marestail

Yes, that title is correct.   I want to grow some Mare Tail!  (Equisetum arvense)

Now given the stuff is all over my allotment I have plenty of rootstock to choose from but it is the growing medium I'm after help with.   What I'm trying to find is a transparent medium I can drop a piece of root into and then track the growth over time.  The actual sample will be in a sealed container and although I can find a suitable tube, it's what to use with it that's causing the problem.

Any suggests?  Does clear gel as soil actual exist??

Thanks for any help!

I believe there is a plant gel product available which is an alternative to soil. You know if I don't ask someone will, why do you want to grow Marestail and why in gel?

My idea is to put a two inch piece of root into the get and then photo it on time lapse to see how it both puts down more roots and also pushes out to send out spores.

I think it could be seen as "know your enemy!" after digging so much out last year and knowing so much more is waiting to come back this year. 

We had a kit at work for some thing like this, i think it was a narrow perspex picture type frame also one for growing things so you could see the root system also like this very narrow so the roots had to go close to the plastic even in soil you could see what was going on clearly. One below is for worms but works the same.

Think of how much Mare's Tail you could grow in a 10 gallon bottle!

God Bless America.

This has just reminded me that as a kid I was given a kit that was for this - a firm jelly you could grow seeds in, from memory they were squash seeds of some kind.

That was a blast from the past. Like the smell of rowney poster paints, and the joy of flipping the crutch from Waddington's Jack Straws...

I'll get me coat

sav