Physiological Activity, Nutritional Composition, and Gene Expression in Apple (Malus domestica Borkh) Influenced by Different ETc Levels of Irrigation at Distinct Development Stages

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors,

Please read comments in the attached file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your valuable suggestions, comments and feedback, we have incorporated all your valuable suggestions in the manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Review: Manuscript Number: water-1430784:

Physiological activity, nutritional composition, and gene expression in Apple (Malus domestica Borkh) influenced by different ETc levels of irrigation at distinct development stages

 

 

 This paper concerns the influence of different irrigation treatments (100%, 75% and 50% volume of Class A pan evapotranspiration) applied at four different pheno-logical stages (flowering and fruit set (C1), fruit growth stage 16 (C2), pre-harvest stage (C3) and throughout the growing season (C4)).

In its new form (resubmitted) the paper is quite improved.

I have only two remarks to make

• As I mentioned in the first examination of the article, data on the quality of irrigation water also need to be presented.

 

• It should be emphasized in the conclusions that these results relate to the specific soil, drip irrigation and climatic conditions

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer

Thank you for your valuable suggestions and feedback, we have incorporated the suggestions in the manuscript.

Reviewer: In its new form (resubmitted) the paper is quite improved.

I have only two remarks to make

Query: As I mentioned in the first examination of the article, data on the quality of irrigation water also need to be presented.

Response: Source of irrigation was freshwater obtained from a canal and collected in an irrigation pumping facility. The same has been incorporated in the Ms.

Query: It should be emphasized in the conclusions that these results relate to the specific soil, drip irrigation and climatic conditions

Response: The said changes have been incorporated in the MS

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It seems that a lot of work has been done, but as the article is presented, the reader does not understand his innovation. It is obvious that when we irrigate the plants show better yield and production compared to the non-irrigated condition and no experiment is needed to prove it. It looks more like a technical report than a scientific article.
In addition, the article does not present any data on soil characteristics or the quality of irrigation water

Minor comments
l.31. C2 must be defined

l.44. IWMI: What did you mean?

l.122. 645, 663 . What did you mean?

Reviewer 2 Report

REVIEWER’ S COMMENTS

Based on the doctoral research of the first author, Rafiya Mushtaq, a nice intensive analysis is presented of the physiological aspects of main nutrient uptake and fruit growth as influenced by irrigation water uptake by the trees. I liked the paper and felt a great pleasure reading and reviewing it.

I would like to suggest the authors some minor revisions, at the following points:

• The Introduction could include a summary of the objectives of the work, which would more quickly introduce the reader in the article dynamics.
• Ln 123: “gm” is not a valid unit weight…
• 1 (Ln 135): YY axis should be labelled.
• Ln 102 and 135 (Fig 2): instead of L/plant/day it could be more significant L/m²/day, as the area covered by one plant is not a (known) constant, mainly if the plantation is intensive …
• Ln 140 (label of Fig. 2): “meteorological” instead of “metrological”.
• Please, rewrite this paragraph, and look for others like it: an example of text difficult to read; it could be made of one period for each determination.
• Ln 180: RNa concentration@1000mg(1µg): please verify and made more clear.

Reviewer 3 Report

See the attached file.

Please re-write the Materials and Methods.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf