Penza university reports results from space-flown tomato seed experiment

The rector said several measures were 20–30% higher for seeds that had been in orbit. The university previously published data for the Pinocchio variety alone.

Tomato seeds sent into orbit as part of a Russian school project showed higher germination and growth measures than control seeds, Penza State Agrarian University rector Oleg Kukharev said. He put the difference across several measures, including yield, at 20–30%. The results so far come from a small project experiment rather than a large independent study.

The “To Space with Your Own Tomato” project began in 2025 with schoolchildren from Russia and Belarus. About 1,500 seeds of three varieties—Bychye Serdtse, Pinocchio and Groshik—were launched from Baikonur to an altitude of about 380 kilometres. Researchers in Penza compared their development with a control group. The university earlier published separate results for Pinocchio: germination energy was 75% for the space-flown seeds and 62.5% for the control seeds. That report also described earlier plant development and nearly 1.5 times as many fruit clusters. These findings support specific observations, but do not establish that space exposure always increases yield.

Kukharev said the two groups’ fruit tasted the same. Moscow schoolchildren plan to plant seeds from the first harvest next year and check whether the observed traits remain in a second generation. The source’s claim that the space-grown tomatoes contained fewer harmful substances cannot support a general conclusion without published numerical test results and a comparable control sample.