Abstract: Background: The ecological restoration of mine slopes in the Qinling Mountains faces significant challenges due to harsh environmental conditions, including fragile geology, vegetation degradation, and severe soil erosion. Conventional slope protection methods often lack sufficient ecological integration and soil retention performance. In response, this study focuses on enhancing the greening effect and erosion resistance of hydroseeding slope protection by selecting optimal vegetation species and evaluating the hydrological-erosional response of slopes under different treatment conditions.Methods:Seven commonly used hydroseeding plant species—Festuca elata, Lolium perenne, Cynodon dactylon, Robinia pseudoacacia, Lespedeza bicolor, Amorpha fruticosa, and Medicago sativa—were cultivated in an outdoor experimental setup. Growth performance and soil-fixing capacity were measured to evaluate species adaptability to hydroseeding substrates. Based on superior growth and stabilization performance, Lolium perenne was selected for further study. Using a laboratory rainfall simulation system, we investigated runoff generation and erosion resistance under four curing durations (24h, 7d, 21d, 35d) and three rainfall intensities ( 10, 30, 50mm/h), simulating real slope conditions.Results:The outdoor trials revealed that Lolium perenne and Festuca elata exhibited excellent growth and adaptability, while Medicago sativa showed high soil stabilization potential. Indoor rainfall simulation demonstrated that runoff rates were significantly and positively correlated with rainfall intensity: the average runoff rates at 30 mm/h and 50 mm/h were approximately 2.1 and 4.5 times higher than those at 10 mm/h, respectively. Runoff rates decreased progressively with longer hydroseeding curing time, with reductions of about 8.0%, 18.6%, and 29.4% at 7d, 21d, and 35d, respectively, compared to 24h. The erosion resistance coefficient increased with curing duration, with a 35d value about 1.47 times that at 24h. However, under high-intensity rainfall (50 mm/h), erosion resistance dropped sharply to only 42% of the value under 10 mm/h. Power function models were developed to describe the relationships between runoff, erosion resistance, rainfall intensity, and curing time, with high fitting accuracy (R² > 0.94).Conclusions: This study highlights a systematic approach for screening suitable hydroseeding species and evaluating slope erosion resistance under varying environmental conditions. The results provide scientific evidence for optimizing plant selection and engineering design parameters in slope restoration projects. The proposed evaluation framework and modeling approach can serve as a technical reference for similar ecological restoration efforts in mining regions with fragile slope environments.