Identification of Adaptive Traits Facilitating the Mechanized Harvesting of Adzuki Bean (Vigna angularis)

Traditional germplasms are unsuitable for mechanized production, limiting adzuki bean production. The creation of cultivars that can be harvested by mechanized means is an urgent task for breeders. The bottom pod height (BPH), lodging resistance, and synchronous maturing of adzuki beans are critical factors for the reduction of losses due to mechanized harvesting. In this study, 14 traits of 806 adzuki bean accessions were analyzed. All growth stages and the yield, lodging score, and synchronous maturing correlated negatively with the BPH. These negative correlations reflect the increased difficulty of breeding to simultaneously satisfy the needs for no lodging, high synchronous maturing rates, BPHs > 10 cm, and high yield. We screened three germplasms with no lodging, high synchronous maturing rates, and BPHs > 10 cm that were used as mechanization-adapted breeding material for crossing with high-yield cultivars. Agronomic trait diversity in adzuki beans was also examined in this study. Principal component and cluster analyses were conducted for 806 germplasms resulting in three clusters with the yield and three growth stage traits serving as the main discriminating factors. Cluster 1 included high-yield germplasms with the number of pods per plant and the number of seeds per pod being the major discriminant factors. Cluster 2 included germplasms with long growth periods and large 100-seed weights while cluster 3 contained germplasms with high BPHs. In general, the characteristics that make mechanical harvesting feasible and those assessed in this study could be utilized to choose and enhance adzuki beans production.