Winter Tolerance Potential of Genetically Diverse Sugarcane Clones under Subtropical Climate of Northern India

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Recomendado

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Reply to Reviewer 1

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks to the authors for providing this study

This study provides practical information on: “Winter tolerance potential of genetically diverse sugarcane clones under sub-tropical climate of Northern India”.

 

In Introduction:

·       Add an appropriate reference to what is mentioned in lines 36-43.

·       Add a paragraph on the effect of low temperature on the quality of cane juice and sugar content.

In Materials and Methods:

·       Add site soil specifications.

·       Precipitation data is required.

·       Add the agricultural operations that took place on the plants during the two growing seasons. Especially with regard to fertilization.

 

In Results and Discussion:

·       Change to results and discussion.

·       The study needs more attention to discuss the results.

·       Especially paragraphs: 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6 and 3-8.

·       More attention is given to citing references related to the results, especially recent references in the last five years.

In Conclusion:

Add suggestions and recommendations based on the results of the study at the end of the conclusion.

Author Response

Reply to Reviewer 2

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Reviewing Comments for Manuscript sustainability-1846066

 

Kumar et al. conducted a field study to investigate the winter (low temperature) tolerance of sugarcane in the North Indian area. Specifically, 34 sugarcane clones from 7 genetically diverse groups were selected and involved in the study. The authors compared several crop growth parameters during and after growing seasons (e.g., germination percentage, number of tiller/plot, can weight, and cane yield). Furthermore, the authors proposed a novel index (i.e., winter tolerance index, WTI) to quantify the winter tolerance of sugarcane. According to their results, several sugarcane clones had good WTI scores. This study explored the winter tolerance of different sugarcane clones and suggested a specific one for cultivation in the study area. More importantly, they proposed a novel index and tried to quantify the winter tolerance of sugarcane. This idea could also be used for other crops under different environmental stresses. Please find my comments as follows.

 

Comment 1: Besides temperature, precipitation is another important weather parameter. Sugarcane requires optimal rainfall to stimulate rapid growth, stalk elongation, and internode formation. On the other hand, heavy precipitation events may also impact sugarcane growth and yield. Please add precipitation information to Figure 1.

 

Comment 2: Proposed winter tolerance index (WTI) is the highlight of this study. The authors presented five WTI categories. However, there is no clarification for those categories. Please provide reasons, justification, or references for your WTI category system.

 

Comment 3: Table 4 is one of the important results of this study. It provides cultivation suggestions for the study area. A better visualization could be used for Table 4. Please consider using a heatmap instead of a plain table.

 

 

Comment 4: Authors presented and compared selected sugarcane using growth parameters and proposed WTI. It would be great if the authors could add a brief discussion to explain the potential mechanism for their different performances. 

Author Response

Reply to Reviewer III

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

All comments were answered appropriately.

Thanks to the authors