Mulching Effect on Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Yield in Sweet Potatoes

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The data of yield and qualities of sweet potato in the black polyethylene mulch system were obtained in south-west Romania and such data will be useful for practical production.

 

Materials and Methods

Daily temperature range was large and amount of rainfall was relatively small from Table 1. Maybe, the examination site has climatic characteristics within the continent. If possible, soil properties such as temperature and moisture in the soil with and without black polyethylene mulch will be presented.

 

The field examination was carried out 2 years, 2017 and 2018. How did the authors treat 2 year’s data?

 

Results

L196 where is the data of Chestnut (38.23t) and mulched variants (40.05t)?

L218 was content of soluble dry matter (Fig.3) same meaning of TSS (Total soluble substance)?

L263 Why did authors obtained definitely higher contents of total polyphenols compared to previous reports? Discussion will be needed.

 

Discussion

The interaction of cultivar and culture system in the yield and quality of sweet potato was important from the obtained data. The reason will be discussed. Sweet potato is originally warm region crop. Soil temperature in July and August would have risen above 35 ℃ under black film mulch from Table 1. Is such soil temperature suitable for root growth? Is there the genetic difference in resistance to high soil temperature among the cultivars used?

 

Figures

Vertical axis line should be drawn in all figures.

Suitable maximum value should be set in vertical axis; for example, max. value was 52.5/ha, however almost data were smaller than around 34 t/ha in Figure 2.

The alphabet for statistics is written as a, b, c from the largest value.

Maybe, ‘N’ and ‘M’ in Figure 1,2,3,4,5 indicated Non-mulching and Mulching. Was the expression of ‘N’ and ‘M’ opposite?

Maybe, same data were used in Figure 1 and Figure 2 because planting density (27,000 plants/ha) was same in all plot. Figure 2 is important from the research purpose.

Author Response

Thanks very much for observations and suggestions!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

1. Line 74-75, in the sentence “the chemical properties: 26,6 mg.kg-1 N; 789 mg.kg- 74 1 P; 331 mg.kg-1 K”, Please clarify whether they are the content of total nitrogen, total phosphorus and total potassium? And the main physical and chemical properties of soil fertility should also include the contents of available nitrogen, available potassium, available phosphorus.
2. In the part of “2.1. Plant material and growing conditions”, the use of water and fertilizer in the field should be supplemented.
3. Line 113-118, in the part of “2.2.1. Material”, the determination method of total soluble substance, the vitamin C and starch should be placed in the part of “2.2.2. Methods”.
4. The software and method for data processing and statistical analysis should be described in the manuscript.
5. There are the same problem in all figure’s formats. The coordinate axis and the title of the coordinate axis should be displayed. What are the differences between uppercase and lowercase letters?
6. The formats of Tables 2 and 3 is not standardized. How did yield (t ha) get it? In addition, Data standard deviation and analysis of variance results should be listed, and the data in Tables 2 and 3 are somewhat repetitive with Fig. 1 and 2. It is recommended to re analyze and display the data.
7. Line 196, How the average total yield (38.23 t/ha) of tradable and non-tradable tubers for 'Chestnut' was calculated? It is somewhat inconsistent with the data in Tables 2 and 3.
8. Line 197-199, why can it be said that the interaction between mulching and cultivar for total yield/ha, but without having an effect on tradable production, has no practical significance. And it can be explained and added in the paper.
9. Line 275-276, How is it observed that this constituent was slightly influenced by the cultivation system (the presence of mulch) and more by the cultivar? And it can be explained and added in the paper.
10. Line 277, the result “'Chestnut' a slight increase” is inconsistent with the Fig. 6.

11.281-282 The expression of the sentence “The total polyphenols in the sweet potato tubers had values that significantly differentiated the cultivars but also the cultivation system (mulch).” is not very appropriate.

12. in “3. Results”, the main research factors in this paper are cultivar and mulching system. The results and discussion in this paper should focus on the effect of these two factors. It needs further modification.
13. In “4. Conclusions”, the results in this paper are not well summarized and need to be further refined and modified.

Author Response

Thanks very much for your valuable observations and suggestions!

Author Response File: Author Response.docx