Effects of Mechanical Winter Pruning on Vine Performances and Management Costs in a Trebbiano Romagnolo Vineyard: A Five-Year Study

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Overall, the article is well structured and appropriately written. There are some concerns.

 

In the Materials and Methods section

Line 100 “model Trimmer” should be “4 Bars Trimmer Pruner”

Line 124 “DOY” should write the full name

 

In the Results section,

Line 183-187 The content described does not correspond to Figure2.

Line 276-277  Why is acidity increased in MAN more than in MP?

Table 5 Worker hours per hectare MP+F “13.6” use be “4.6” refer to line 313

 

In the Discussion section,

 

The relationship between grape quality and management costs should be criticized. Because the decision to operate the machine is not solely based on cost management. But it depends on the return that will be received as well.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

In the Materials and Methods section

Line 100 “model Trimmer” should be “4 Bars Trimmer Pruner”

Yes, that is correct. The Trimmer model is usually equipped with 4 cutting bars. The sentence has been integrated to make it more evident that the model used in the trials had 4 cutting bars.

 

Line 124 “DOY” should write the full name

Author reply: thank you for the suggestion. I modified the text including “Day Of the Year”.

 In the Results section,

Line 183-187 The content described does not correspond to Figure2.

Author reply: actually, in this paragraph I reported a brief explanation of the weather data shown in the five panels (one for each year of the trial) of the Figure 2.

 

Line 276-277 Why is acidity increased in MAN more than in MP?

Author reply: actually, in that part of the text we explained that in 2014 the titratable acidity of all the treatments were higher than the acidity level found in the other years of the experiment.  

 

Table 5 Worker hours per hectare MP+F “13.6” use be “4.6” refer to line 313

Author reply: yes, I understand the point of the reviewer. The pruning was completed in 4.5454 h/ha, in the text we reported 4.55 h/ha, that multiplied by 3 operators (one driving the tractor and two pruning with pneumatic scissors) results 13.6. I added a short sentence in the text to clarify that 3 operators worked for the treatment MP+F.

In the Discussion section,

The relationship between grape quality and management costs should be criticized. Because the decision to operate the machine is not solely based on cost management. But it depends on the return that will be received as well.

Author reply: yes, I understand the point of the reviewer, considering that mechanical pruning led to higher yield without differences in grape quality we may hypothesize that this operation may generate higher economical return than that of manual pruning. Anyway, our trial was focused on the effects of different pruning strategies on vine performances and on their management costs, and we were not able to perform a complete cost-benefit analysis.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

The paper s topic presents interesting and valuable primary data for vineyard growers. There are some points that the authors should address:

Introduction

-          The aim and scope of the paper is well described

Material and methods

-          The experimental period was between 2011 – 2015, why did the results were not presented earlier?

-          The methods are applied for one grape variety – it would have been interesting to study and expose the result at least for 2 or 3 grape varieties

-          The methods are well described, but there are for the basic parameters of the quality of fruits (TSS, TA, pH)

Results

-          The results are well-exposed and explain

-          To be easier to follow the data from the figures for the random reader, in my opinion, the legenda should be put on the right side of the figures (Figures 3,4,5, 7,8,9)

-          also, the article could be improved with results regarding the grapes' quality on more complex chemical analysis – volatile compounds, anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity, and so on

Discussion

-          the results are well discussed in this part of the paper

-          even though there are few studies regarding mechanical pruning in vineyards, there are some recent ones there could be used in the paper

 

Please check the paper – Latin names should be written in italic fonts

Please check the references section – there are some references that do not follow the templates

 

Thank you!

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Introduction

The aim and scope of the paper is well described

Material and methods

The experimental period was between 2011 – 2015, why did the results were not presented earlier?

Author reply: yes, I understand the point of the reviewer, but unfortunately the two research groups that collaborated in the experiment were very busy in many other activities.

 

The methods are applied for one grape variety – it would have been interesting to study and expose the result at least for 2 or 3 grape varieties

Author reply: I agree with the reviewer, but the two cooperative winery that financed the present study were interested on cv. Trebbiano romagnolo, which is the most cultivated variety in the area in which they operate.

 

The methods are well described, but there are for the basic parameters of the quality of fruits (TSS, TA, pH)

Author reply: yes, those reported are basic parameters for berry composition but are able to describe correctly the quality of the white grapes of Trebbiano romagnolo.

Results

The results are well-exposed and explain

To be easier to follow the data from the figures for the random reader, in my opinion, the legenda should be put on the right side of the figures (Figures 3,4,5, 7,8,9)

Author reply: yes, I understand the point of the reviewer, but since usually in the scientific papers it is reported in the figure caption, I decided to let the legenda there.

 

also, the article could be improved with results regarding the grapes' quality on more complex chemical analysis – volatile compounds, anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity, and so on

Author reply: yes, it would have been nice to analyze the volatile compounds but Trebbiano romagnolo is almost a neutral variety and at high yield levels this grape is used for the production of table wine, without any particular aromas. Moreover, we can not analyze anthocyanins on a white berry variety.

Discussion

The results are well discussed in this part of the paper

Even though there are few studies regarding mechanical pruning in vineyards, there are some recent ones there could be used in the paper

Author reply: I agree with the reviewer and I have included in this section references from recent literature

 

Please check the paper – Latin names should be written in italic fonts

Author reply: yes, this is correct but I couldn’t find any Latin names which was not written in italic font.

 

Please check the references section – there are some references that do not follow the templates

Author reply: yes, I agree with the reviewer but unfortunately for some of the oldest references, it is not possible to get all the information requested by the template.

Reviewer 3 Report

I value the paper's intriguing topic and the great scope of the vineyard experiment. I really appreciate the high-quality data processing and the effort for a comprehensive approach. I have a few comments on the paper:

Introduction

·         There are relatively few works cited

·         Focus on, for example, the analysis of economic costs

·         Clearly define your scientific hypothesis.

·         Define individual objectives leading to confirmation or refutation of hypotheses

Materials and Methods

·         Lines 90–101: please add the pruning treatments dates for individual variants

Results

·         I recommend moving subchapter 3.1. to subsection 2.2. You have only processed weather data that are adopted. Avoid misinterpretation in the future.

Discussion

·         What are the disadvantages of winter pruning?

·         Can mechanical pruning lead to job losses in rural areas?

·         For which types of vineyards can you recommend winter mechanical pruning, and for which ones do not?

Conclusions

·         Lines 435–438: I recommend moving those to the discussion

·         Adjust according to goals and hypotheses

Author Response

Introduction

There are relatively few works cited

Author reply: some recent publications have been included, particularly in the introduction and discussion section as suggested by the reviewer.

 

Focus on, for example, the analysis of economic costs

Author reply: the section has been integrated with some considerations on the analysis of economic costs.

 

Clearly define your scientific hypothesis.

Author reply: as reported in the introduction, considering the good results of previous studies, we tested two different mechanical pruning treatments on cv. Trebbiano Romagnolo, to see the effects on vine performances. Therefore, I added a detailed cost analysis and I stated our scientific hypothesis.

 

Define individual objectives leading to confirmation or refutation of hypotheses

Author reply: I modified the objectives of the experiments and I hope that this section is now more clear.

 

Materials and Methods

Lines 90–101: please add the pruning treatments dates for individual variants

Author reply: thank you for the comment, I added in the text that vines were pruned each year during dormancy, in January, and that the 3 treatments were applied on the same day (Line 115).

 

Results

I recommend moving subchapter 3.1. to subsection 2.2. You have only processed weather data that are adopted. Avoid misinterpretation in the future.

Author reply: I agree with the reviewer, I moved the weather data into the Material and Methods section.

 

Discussion

What are the disadvantages of winter pruning?

Author reply: I didn’t understand exactly the request of the reviewer, but I have to pointed out that winter pruning need to be applied in vines to balance the bud load and maintain their shape according to the training system. Usually, winter pruning is applied manually and the aim of present research is to evaluate if its mechanization could be applied without compromising vine performances.

 

Can mechanical pruning lead to job losses in rural areas?

Author reply: I have integrated the discussion section (lines 427-430) with some consideration related to the problem of labour shortage that distinguishes most of European and Italian rural areas that represent the study's areas of interest. As regards the developing countries where, effectively, the introduction of mechanized systems can lead to a reduction in the demand for manual labour, the dynamics of labour availability are very different and not the subject of this work.

 

For which types of vineyards can you recommend winter mechanical pruning, and for which ones do not?

Author reply: our trial was conducted in a high yielding vineyard whose grape is used to produce table wines. Anyway, as reported in the Introduction, also vineyard for high quality wines can be mechanically pruned.

 

Conclusions

Lines 435–438: I recommend moving those to the discussion

Author reply: I agree with the suggestion of the reviewer and I moved the period accordingly.

 

Adjust according to goals and hypotheses

Author reply: I followed the suggestion of the reviewer and I modified the conclusion.

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The article has been significantly edited and the quality of the paper has been improved.

I thank the authors for their cooperation.