Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer from Corn Cobs

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In my opinion, the article entitled, "Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous organic fertiliser from corn cobs" needs a thorough rewrite before it can be published in the Agriculture journal. Currently, the paper does not meet the standards of a research article. The authors should include several comments:

• Please be consistent when writing the title - either all words with a capital letter or as in a sentence.
• The purpose of the research should be more broadly described than in one sentence. In addition, it must be emphasised at the same time why this study is important and what new contributions it can make to science. I would also suggest that the authors include a statistically verifiable research hypothesis in the last paragraph of the introduction.
• When describing the research plot, please include a plot scheme and add a map with the site's location within the country.
• The English of this manuscript is bad. In many places, the sentences are grammatically incorrectly constructed. Often the authors use the same construction and the same words in sentences next to each other - please use synonyms. I recommend a thorough check of the work by a native speaker. Currently, the manuscript is at a low linguistic level, e.g. the sentence in line 75 uses the future tense, and the next one uses the past tense. So it is not clear whether the research is yet to be done or has already been done.
• Please specify which software was used to carry out the statistical tests
• The experiment description lacks information on what irrigation system was used and what irrigation doses were used. Please complete this.
• Are the authors sure that in line 127, they want to refer to Table 1 and not Table 2?
• The paper does not explain how the chlorophyll a, b and a and b contents were determined. Please add a description to the methodology.
• Please consider presenting some of the results in graphs - this would be clearer to the reader
• There is an incorrect citation format on line 223.
• The authors have insufficiently referred to previously published articles in the discussion section. I would ask the authors to collate the results with the world literature.
• The conclusion section needs improvement. Please underline in it the relevance of the results obtained for developing knowledge or agriculture.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for Review-in-Charge who gives the authors chance to revise and edit version manuscript for consideration to be published in the Agriculture. Considering upgrade on figure quality, spelling check and format application, hereby with this email, I re-send the revision with the updated details as follows:

Initial title: Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs

Submitter: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti

Authors: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti, Djoko Purnomo, Bambang Pujiasmanto, and Desy Setyaningrum

Keywords: Alfisol; Phosphate uptake; Potassium uptake; Root length

No. pages: 15

No. tables: 6

No. references: 70

Status: Revision was completed in December 29, 2022

This step is taken after considering comments of reviewer. Furthermore, the authors also would like to express their gratitude to anonymous reviewer who already paid their time and attention to give this manuscript suggestion, recommendation and correction. I would like to clarify that the revised manuscript is presented based on reviewer’s comment. All changes in the revised manuscript are denoted by red mark and clarified in the rebuttal.

Thank you for your attention and consideration. We have great expectation and hope that our journal can be considered appropriate and accepted to be published in the Agriculture..

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, 

This study evaluated the Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous organic fertilizer from corn cobs. In general, the manuscript brings nothing novel or new. The overall paper has low quality.

Kind regards, 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for Review-in-Charge who gives the authors chance to revise and edit version manuscript for consideration to be published in the Agriculture. Considering upgrade on figure quality, spelling check and format application, hereby with this email, I re-send the revision with the updated details as follows:

Initial title: Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs

Submitter: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti

Authors: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti, Djoko Purnomo, Bambang Pujiasmanto, and Desy Setyaningrum

Keywords: Alfisol; Phosphate uptake; Potassium uptake; Root length

No. pages: 15

No. tables: 6

No. references: 70

Status: Revision was completed in December 29, 2022

This step is taken after considering comments of reviewer. Furthermore, the authors also would like to express their gratitude to anonymous reviewer who already paid their time and attention to give this manuscript suggestion, recommendation and correction. I would like to clarify that the revised manuscript is presented based on reviewer’s comment. All changes in the revised manuscript are denoted by red mark and clarified in the rebuttal.

Thank you for your attention and consideration. We have great expectation and hope that our journal can be considered appropriate and accepted to be published in the Agriculture..

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript is too poor in quality to be considered for a scientific publication, perhaps for a simpler publication in annals of events. The authors need reformulated all manuscrit in all parts to be considered as a scientific paper. The most critical, in my opinion, is the exploitation of the results obtained, which is very simple and basic, and outside the focus proposed by the title and objectives. Second, the methodology described is very poor and not sufficient for good understanding and replicability by others, the authors need to be more scientific detailed. The writing in general is confusing and superficial, much due to lack of focus and better work with data obtained in the experiment. The paper, in the present form, has structural problems and needs profound changes to be considered for publication, which makes it unfeasible to publish at the moment.  

My suggestion is that the authors rework the work completely and resubmit the article to the journal. The manuscript needs extensive modifications in all parts to be publishable in the journal. The present form is not sufficient, the authors needs reformulate and work better in the structure (writing and data exploration).

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for Review-in-Charge who gives the authors chance to revise and edit version manuscript for consideration to be published in the Agriculture. Considering upgrade on figure quality, spelling check and format application, hereby with this email, I re-send the revision with the updated details as follows:

Initial title: Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs

Submitter: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti

Authors: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti, Djoko Purnomo, Bambang Pujiasmanto, and Desy Setyaningrum

Keywords: Alfisol; Phosphate uptake; Potassium uptake; Root length

No. pages: 15

No. tables: 6

No. references: 70

Status: Revision was completed in December 29, 2022

This step is taken after considering comments of reviewer. Furthermore, the authors also would like to express their gratitude to anonymous reviewer who already paid their time and attention to give this manuscript suggestion, recommendation and correction. I would like to clarify that the revised manuscript is presented based on reviewer’s comment. All changes in the revised manuscript are denoted by red mark and clarified in the rebuttal.

Thank you for your attention and consideration. We have great expectation and hope that our journal can be considered appropriate and accepted to be published in the Agriculture.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I appreciate the authors' contribution to improving the manuscript entitled Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs. The authors have addressed all my comments and clarify concerns. However, in my opinion, the manuscript still needs some minor changes:

- please provide information in the text on the type of irrigation used, irrigation frequency and irrigation rates. This aspect is extremely important for agriculture and should not be omitted from the paper.

- A sentence stating the purpose of the work: “Therefore, this research was conducted to study the chemical content and the role of organic corn cob fertilizer and to find the optimum dose of organic corn cob fertilizer in supporting the growth and yield of corn plants" (lines 79-81) should be split and reworded into several shorter sentences. This way, it will sound better in English.

- In the conclusion section, the authors write: "Corn cobs organic fertilizer had an effect on leaf area index, root length, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, weight of 100 seeds, cob diameter and phosphate uptake" (lines 446-447). Please elaborate on how the corn cobs organic fertilizer affected the parameters mentioned.

Author Response

To

Reviewer Agriculture

January 15, 2023

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for Review-in-Charge who gives the authors chance to revise and edit version manuscript for consideration to be published in the Agriculture. Considering upgrade on figure quality, spelling check and format application, hereby with this email, I re-send the revision with the updated details as follows:

Initial title: Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs

Submitter: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti

Authors: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti, Djoko Purnomo, Bambang Pujiasmanto, and Desy Setyaningrum

Keywords: Alfisol; Phosphate uptake; Potassium uptake; Root length

No. pages: 15

No. tables: 6

No. references: 72

Status: Revision was completed in January 15, 2023

This step is taken after considering comments of reviewer. Furthermore, the authors also would like to express their gratitude to anonymous reviewer who already paid their time and attention to give this manuscript suggestion, recommendation and correction. I would like to clarify that the revised manuscript is presented based on reviewer’s comment. All changes in the revised manuscript are denoted by red mark and clarified in the rebuttal.

Thank you for your attention and consideration. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The major concern is that this paper has no novelty.

Author Response

To

Reviewer Agriculture

January 15, 2023

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for Review-in-Charge who gives the authors chance to revise and edit version manuscript for consideration to be published in the Agriculture. Considering upgrade on figure quality, spelling check and format application, hereby with this email, I re-send the revision with the updated details as follows:

Initial title: Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs

Submitter: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti

Authors: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti, Djoko Purnomo, Bambang Pujiasmanto, and Desy Setyaningrum

Keywords: Alfisol; Phosphate uptake; Potassium uptake; Root length

No. pages: 15

No. tables: 6

No. references: 72

Status: Revision was completed in January 15, 2023

This step is taken after considering comments of reviewer. Furthermore, the authors also would like to express their gratitude to anonymous reviewer who already paid their time and attention to give this manuscript suggestion, recommendation and correction. I would like to clarify that the revised manuscript is presented based on reviewer’s comment. All changes in the revised manuscript are denoted by red mark and clarified in the rebuttal.

Thank you for your attention and consideration. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript had a noticeable improvement, but can be improved in quality and data work or exploration.

Author Response

To

Reviewer Agriculture

January 15, 2023

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for Review-in-Charge who gives the authors chance to revise and edit version manuscript for consideration to be published in the Agriculture. Considering upgrade on figure quality, spelling check and format application, hereby with this email, I re-send the revision with the updated details as follows:

Initial title: Response of Maize Yield and Nutrient Uptake to Indigenous Organic Fertilizer From Corn Cobs

Submitter: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti

Authors: Maria Theresia Sri Budiastuti, Djoko Purnomo, Bambang Pujiasmanto, and Desy Setyaningrum

Keywords: Alfisol; Phosphate uptake; Potassium uptake; Root length

No. pages: 15

No. tables: 6

No. references: 72

Status : Revision was completed in January 15, 2023

This step is taken after considering comments of reviewer. Furthermore, the authors also would like to express their gratitude to anonymous reviewer who already paid their time and attention to give this manuscript suggestion, recommendation and correction. I would like to clarify that the revised manuscript is presented based on reviewer’s comment. All changes in the revised manuscript are denoted by red mark and clarified in the rebuttal.

Thank you for your attention and consideration. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf