Effect of a Micronutrient Fertilizer and Fungicide on the Germination of Perennial Ryegrass Seeds (Lolium perenne L.) in Field Conditions
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors, thank you for conducting this research where you tried to find the effects of micronutrients and fungicide on germination of perennial ryegrass. I am encouraging the authors to improve the contents with including more explanation. There are plenty of unnecessary text which need to re-write with more concise form.
Followings are some suggestions to improve the contents:
Title: I am encouraging the authors to refresh the title. The treatments were applied in field condition where germination were done after harvest. But based on the current title, the research topic is kind of vague.
Introduction: Authors can improve the introduction with adding more background information. Some information can be moved from discussion section to introduction section.
Line 27: authors need to check space- 1 L ha-1
Line 61: seeding speed or seeding rate?
Line 67: As already mentioned about the nutrient content (per kg) in the previous sentences, don't need to rewrite the nutrient contents in the second sentences. This way authors can reduce some extra text.
Line 70: please check- fungicide with 125 g L-1
Line 73: Authors need to mention more details about the timing of application e.g. which growth stages?, how many times?, etc.
Methods
- The authors mentioned that the experiment were conducted from 2016 to 2018. Does germination experiment were conducted only one time? If multiple time, need to mention with more explanation in the methods.
- Authors need to mentioned about- when harvesting was done and after how many days of harvesting that germination experiment study was done.
- Authors mentioned that 100 seeds were collected to test germination. Authors need to include more data about seeds e.g. 100 seeds weight, seeds yield, any post harvest processing etc. Was that germination study replicated or not ?
- Including more field data (e.g. any growth responses to different treatment) will enrich the contents.
- Authors didn't mention about statistical procedure to analyze the data.
Table 1: Authors presented the field map/design in the table 1. Is it necessary to include the map?
Table 2: Authors can delete the black line under the row January
Table 3: It will be easier for the readers if authors can simplified the table 3. Is it necessary to present all the data day by day? Authors can simplified in different ways and also can improve visualization through converting these data to graphical views.
Results: Authors presented the results with more details which is good. To keep readers attraction, authors may present only important data.
Discussion: Some information from the first three paragraphs can be move to introduction section as those are mostly background information.
The treatments were applied in the field condition. There may be other factors influence the results. To support the conclusion, authors need to include more explanation with presenting more field and seeds data.
Conclusion: There is not enough statistical points to support the conclusion as most of the results were non-significant.
Thank you very much.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We want to sincerely thank you for the revision of our manuscript. Each of your suggestions has ben taken into account. The changes were done in the text. Of course, if You will have any questions of comments we will explain them.
Best regards
Authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
- At what stage of plants growth the fertilizer and fungicide were applied?
- Is there any opportunity to add the data indicating the effect of epoxiconazole on biochemical parameters of plants? Any literature data especially the mechanism of growth stimulating effect
May be this one?: “Tietjen K, Contribution of plant responses to efficacy of fungicides – A perspective. In: Deising HB; Fraaije B; Mehl A; Oerke EC; Sierotzki H; Stammler G (Eds), "Modern Fungicides and Antifungal Compounds", Vol. VIII, pp. 33-50. © 2017 Deutsche Phytomedizinische Gesellschaft, Braunschweig, ISBN: 978-3-941261-15-0”
- When the seeds were harvested?
- Are there any data on the microfertilizer/fungicide effect on grass biomass and/or biochemical parameters?
- There is a misprint: ‘epoxyconazole’ should be written as ‘epoxiconazole’
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
We would like to sincerely thank you for revision of our paper. We corrected it as you suggested in your comments. Of course if you will have other questions or comments we want to explain them.
Best regards
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
