China has claimed that the country has now grown more than 20 varieties of 14 different plant species in space as they aim to achieve large-scale crop production onboard their Tiangong space station.

The Astronaut Center of China also confirmed that second generation wheat is nearly ripe onboard the craft.

This latest step sees wheat that was planted on the space station reach maturity, be harvested and then subsequently replanted.

The Astronaut Center of China says that this is an important milestone in the understanding of whether crops can reproduce successfully and provide food in microgravity.

Some other crops that have been grown in orbit by China are potato, carrot, sunflower and lettuce.

Two different growing units are currently on the space station. The first method uses aeroponics, where the plants grow without soil and the roots receive water and nutrients via a fine mist. The second method uses a slightly more conventional growing media.

China’s pursuit of large-scale crop production in space continues as they look for methods of feeding astronauts for longer missions where resupplies from Earth may be difficult or impossible.

The growing of crops is one part of the country’s aims to build an ecosystem in space that provides for the regeneration of the water, food and air that astronauts require to survive.