Temperature Limits for Seed Germination in Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Line 67 – fruit of hemp is nut, with a woody pericarp, non-growing with the seed. Achene is also one-seeded, dry fruit but the seed coat is usually very thin or in some cases may disintegrate during development.
2.4 Seed priming
Have preliminary experiments been carried out beforehand to determine the priming conditions - temperature, time and osmotic potential?
What was the osmotic potential for matrix priming? The same as for osmopriming?
Have the seeds been rinsed after priming?
How long seeds were drying? In which temperature and relative humidity of air seeds were drying?
Line 131 – “Standard germination was statistically the same…” – after 3 days germination of ‘Geiorgina’ and ‘Victoria’ was statistically different
Line 134-135 – „This may be the first report in the literature of using accelerated aging to evaluate seed vigor in hemp seed” – it is not true, below link to previous report:
Elias, Sabry G.; Wu, Yea-ching; and Stimpson, David C. (2020) "Seed Quality and Dormancy of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)," Journal of Agricultural Hemp Research: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/jahr/vol2/iss1/2
Page 11 What was a temperature 41 or 42oC? In the text once 41 and once 42 are given, and in the table 41. In section “material and methods” is also 42oC.
Figure 1 – I suggest adding a legend with symbols instead of a description under the graph. This will make it easier to read.
Table 4. What was the unit of seedling emergence? %?
Perhaps it would be better to separate the results and the discussion.
Discussion should be improved, some articles can be add:
Huaran Hu, Hao Liu, Feihu Liu. 2018. Seed germination of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) cultivars responds differently to the stress of salt type and concentration. Industrial Crops and Products, 123: 254-261, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2018.06.089
Lisson S. N., Mendham N. J., Carberry P. S. 2000. Development of a Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Simulation Model 1. General Introduction and the Effect of Temperature on the Pre-Emergent Development of Hemp. Aust. J Exp. Agric. 40 (3): 405-411. https://doi.org/10.1071/ EA99058
Qin C. X., Wang F. Y., Wen D. Q., Qin W. 2014. The Effect of Different Temperatures Treatment on Fire Hemp Seeds Germination. Medicinal Plant 5 (1): 70-72
VARGA I., ILJKIĆ D., TKALEC KOJIĆ M. , DOBREVA T., MARKULJ KULUNDŽIĆ A., ANTUNOVIĆ M. 2022. Germination of Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) at Different Level of Sodium Chloride and Temperatures. Agric. conspec. sci. 87(1): 11-15.
Conlusions – I suggest reconsider them. They now sound like part of discussion and results.
Author Response
Reviewer 1 comments and response in bold.
Line 67 – fruit of hemp is nut, with a woody pericarp, non-growing with the seed. Achene is also one-seeded, dry fruit but the seed coat is usually very thin or in some cases may disintegrate during development.
I checked several references including Gleason and Cronquist, Manual of Vascular Plants and the on-line Flora of North America that describe hemp fruit as an achene.
2.4 Seed priming
Have preliminary experiments been carried out beforehand to determine the priming conditions - temperature, time and osmotic potential?
Yes, but just briefly and found the conditions reported to be suitable.
What was the osmotic potential for matrix priming? The same as for osmopriming?
Matrix priming uses the matric potential of the system for controlled hydration rather than the osmotic potential.
Have the seeds been rinsed after priming?
Yes, a statement added on line 113
How long seeds were drying? In which temperature and relative humidity of air seeds were drying?
For 24 hours under a laminar flow hood. This has been added.
Line 131 – “Standard germination was statistically the same…” – after 3 days germination of ‘Geiorgina’ and ‘Victoria’ was statistically different
Standard germination refers to the germination under standard ISTA rules after 7 days. The 3-day count is a reference to germination speed.
Line 134-135 – „This may be the first report in the literature of using accelerated aging to evaluate seed vigor in hemp seed” – it is not true, below link to previous report:
Elias, Sabry G.; Wu, Yea-ching; and Stimpson, David C. (2020) "Seed Quality and Dormancy of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)," Journal of Agricultural Hemp Research: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/jahr/vol2/iss1/2
Thankyou for alerting us to this reference. Its information has been added to the paper.
Page 11 What was a temperature 41 or 42oC? In the text once 41 and once 42 are given, and in the table 41. In section “material and methods” is also 42oC.
Thanks for finding this. It has been changed.
Figure 1 – I suggest adding a legend with symbols instead of a description under the graph. This will make it easier to read.
The symbols are described in the figure. I think adding a legend on to an already busy graph could be distracting. However, this can be done if the editor thinks it is appropriate.
Table 4. What was the unit of seedling emergence? %?
Percentage has been added to table.
Perhaps it would be better to separate the results and the discussion.
We felt that because each section addressed a discrete set of experiments related to temperature that it would be better to include a discussion after reporting the data.
Discussion should be improved, some articles can be add:
Huaran Hu, Hao Liu, Feihu Liu. 2018. Seed germination of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) cultivars responds differently to the stress of salt type and concentration. Industrial Crops and Products, 123: 254-261, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2018.06.089
Lisson S. N., Mendham N. J., Carberry P. S. 2000. Development of a Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Simulation Model 1. General Introduction and the Effect of Temperature on the Pre-Emergent Development of Hemp. Aust. J Exp. Agric. 40 (3): 405-411. https://doi.org/10.1071/ EA99058
Qin C. X., Wang F. Y., Wen D. Q., Qin W. 2014. The Effect of Different Temperatures Treatment on Fire Hemp Seeds Germination. Medicinal Plant 5 (1): 70-72
VARGA I., ILJKIĆ D., TKALEC KOJIĆ M. , DOBREVA T., MARKULJ KULUNDŽIĆ A., ANTUNOVIĆ M. 2022. Germination of Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) at Different Level of Sodium Chloride and Temperatures. Agric. conspec. sci. 87(1): 11-15.
Additional references added where appropriate.
Conlusions – I suggest reconsider them. They now sound like part of discussion and results.
The conclusion was reworked.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors
The presented work in general concerns the influence of temperature on germination of industrial hemp seeds (Cannabis sativa L.). The results obtained by the authors are interesting and valuable, and they can have a significant application. Currently, there is a growing interest in the cultivation of this plant, which is reflected in the growing area of its cultivation, both in North America and Europe. This is mainly due to the wide range of possible uses of this plant in the human economy. The main shortcoming of this work is, in my opinion, an overly laconic introduction, in which issues such as seed aging, seed thermal stress or pre-sowing seed treatment were not taken into account. The aim of the work should also be changed in such a way as to take into account the obtained research results. The research methodology should also be specified and the relevant literature references should be referred to. In my opinion, the work lacks a factual analysis of the obtained results. Please include in your discussion the results obtained by other teams of scientists researching the same issues:
Hesami, M.; Pepe M.; Monthony A.S.; Baiton A; Phineas Jones A.M. Modeling and optimizing in vitro seed germination of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). Indium. Crops Prod. 2021, 170, 113753.
Islam M.M.; Rengel Z.; Storer P .; Siddique K.H.M; Solaiman Z.M. Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Varieties and Seed Pre-Treatments Affect Seed Germination and Early Growth of Seedlings. Agronomy 2022, 12, 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12010006
Sera B., Sera M., Gavril B. et al. Seed Germination and Early Growth Responses to Seed Pre-treatment by Non-thermal Plasma in Hemp Cultivars (Cannabis sativa L.). Plasma Chem Plasma Process 37, 207–221 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-016-9763-9
Byrd J.A. Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Germination Temperatures and Herbicide Tolerance Screening. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/91431
Author Response
Reviewer 2 comments.
We thank the review for the additional references. They were helpful and included in the revised text as appropriate.
Reviewer 3 Report
After the corrections is ready for publication.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reviewer comments were editorial for the Table formatting to fit the page. We assume the editor will adjust the Tables accordingly.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
after corrections, especially after improving discussion, article is more valuble. Thankk you for your answers.
Author Response
Thank you
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
According to the review procedures in force in the Cropps journal, in a situation where the Reviewer decided that the manuscript must be corrected (large corrections) (see instructions for authors), authors are required to respond to each of the Reviewer's allegations. The authors of this paper ignored the above rules. I am asking the authors to read my opinion and respond to my comments.
Author Response
We did not mean to appear to ignore the comments from the reviewer. However, the reviewer’s comments were not very specific, and their general tenor was indicated specifically in the other two reviews that were addressed in the revision. We appreciated the specific suggestion on additional references and there were five additional references added to the manuscript that were we and the other reviewers felt would be appropriate.
Lisson, S. N.; Mendham, N. J.; Carberry, P. S. 2000. Development of a hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) simulation model 1. General introduction and the effect of temperature on the pre-emergent development of hemp. Aust. J Exp. Agric., 2000, 40, 405-411.
Qin C. X.; Wang F. Y.; Wen D. Q.; Qin W. The effect of different temperatures treatment on fire hemp seeds germination. Medicinal Plant, 2014, 5, 70-72.
Varga, I., Iljkić D., Tkalec Kojić, M.; Dobreva T., Markulj Kulundžić, A.; Antunović, M. Germination of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) at different level of sodium chloride and temperatures. Agric. Conspec. Sci., 2022, 87, 11-15.
Byrd J.A. Industrial Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Germination temperatures and herbicide tolerance screening. Master of Science Thesis. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/91431.
Elias, S.G.; Wu, Y.; Stimpson, D. Seed quality and dormancy of hemp (Cannabis staiva L.). J. Agric. Hemp Research, 2020, 2, 1-15.
