Development of New Preventive Strategies for Pine Pitch Canker Caused by Fusarium circinatum in Irrigation Water and Evaluation in a Real Nursery Context

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In the manuscript, the authors clearly highlighted the goal of the research - Development of new preventive strategies for Pine Pitch Canker caused by Fusarium circinatum present in irrigation water and its assessment application in a real nursery context.

Nurseries for the production of forest planting material - seedlings of Pinus species (about 90% of nursery production in many countries), are located mainly in open area, irrigation is from natural watercourses, and the presence of the phytopathogenic fungus Fusarium oxisporum which causes the laying down of one-year-old seedlings, is frequent, results mentioned in the paper are important for the forestry industry.

The experiments were carried out according to the propositions of good laboratory practice for this type of research, and the results were adequately statistically processed and presented.

My opinion on certain parts of the work is reflected in the following:

-        research goals - well chosen and significant for the successful production of forest planting material, which is clearly emphasized in the Introduction

-        introduction - clearly and decisively written

-        adequately selected and clearly described research methods

-        results clearly presented and discussed

-        the conclusions are well drawn, and indications are given for the necessity of continuing such and similar research.

Author Response

The authors would like to thank the reviewer for the positive comments and we are very grateful for the overall positive appreciation of the manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Good to get this work pubilshed.

Author Response

The authors would like to thank the reviewer for the positive comments and we are very grateful for the overall positive appreciation of the manuscript.

Reviewer 3 Report

General comments

The aim of the study was to evaluate a preventive strategy for Fusarium circinatum inoculum dispersal through irrigation water in nurseries. It is valuable that the potential applicability of the treatments was evaluated under laboratory conditions and in a real nursery context, Results demonstrated that there were no significant negative effects for the plants in some treatments. However, as stated by the authors, irrigation practices to implement the treatments in the nurseries could increase plants production costs.

The role of irrigation water as inoculum dispersal have been demostrated in South African nurseries (see Van Wyk et al., 2012). This is important but it is just cited at the end of the intro section in the manuscript. Van Wyk and other references should be included to justify the interest of disinfest the nursery irrigation water. In the South African study results also demostrated the efficacy of hydrogen peroxide-based treatments for nursery irrigation water. Therefore the strategy developed in the manuscript is not so new. The interest of using other commercial products such as Hydrocare (special formulation of hydrogen peroxide? it would be important to improve explanation) or Desogerme should be crearly justified in the manuscript.

 

Specific comments

The tittle should be reduced.

Many missing references should be included, mainly in the introduction and discussion sections (see some examples in the pdf file).

Tables format must be improved.

Material and methods should include the explanation about why these particular treatments and concentrations were selected. It could also be improved including some missing information such as number of experiments repeats. For example, apparently 5 plates with suspensions were evaluated in the spore germination assessment but the experiment was not repeated.

See the pdf file for more specific comments

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper can be accepted without any further changes.