Adaptability of nine Chinese milkvetch varieties (strains) in Hanzhong region

A field trial was conducted to select the milkvetch varieties or strains suitable for Hanzhong and provide excellent variety for different planting patterns of rice by comparing the phenological period, agronomic characters, and fresh grass yield of nine Chinese milkvetch varieties. The results showed that the ‘Nanzheng’ variety, ‘yH925’, ‘Ningbodaqiao’, and ‘Xiangzi No.1’ were very early manuring milkvetch cultivars grown in Hanzhong. The ‘yiJ’, ‘848711’, ‘Minzi No.7’ , and ‘Yijiang Zi’ were early maturing milkvetch cultivars, and ‘Xiangzi No.4’ was a medium maturing variety grown in Hanzhong. In terms of grass yield, there is a significant difference between nine varieties. The fresh grass yield of ‘Minzi No. 7’ was the highest with 24192.45 kg·ha⁻¹ followed by ‘yiJ’ with 23494.50 kg·ha⁻¹. The difference between ‘Minzi No.7’ and ‘yiJ’ was not significant but significantly higher than other varieties. The lowest was ‘Nanzheng’ with 12049.80 kg·ha⁻¹, which was significantly lower than that of the other eight varieties. The ‘Ningbodaqiao’ species exhibit excellent characters as green manure in Hanzhong, due to which the plant height, aboveground part, root nodule, and fresh grass yield were better at the flowering stage, and thus can be used in a rice direct seeding mode. The fresh grass yield of ‘Minzi No.7’ and ‘yiJ’ were significantly higher than that of other early maturing varieties and were found to be excellent early maturing varieties.