Seventeen grapefruit seeds selected from multiple varieties in Changshan county, Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, ended their trip in space aboard the Shenzhou XII spacecraft and were planted in the Quzhou research institute of agriculture and forestry, local media reported on Feb 28.

The seeds may mutate after being induced by strong radiation in space. High-quality seedlings will be selected from the mutant seeds, and multi-generation seed selection will be carried out to obtain excellent new varieties.

Seeds are planted in the culture room of Quzhou research institute of agriculture and forestry. [Photo/qz123.com]

The seeds are being cultivated in a culture room with a constant temperature of 28℃ and are expected to sprout in half a month.

If the cultivation is successful, the observation test of top grafting will be carried out in the second half of the year.

"We have to observe the seeds carefully. Their growth can be observed at the seedling stage. We also hope that the grapefruit seeds can lead to some innovations," said Zhen Xueliang, director of the research institute of agriculture and forestry.