Optimizing Tomato Growth and Productivity Using Nitrogen and Irrigation Application Timing
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
you have presented a good agronomic work. It is written in an appropriate manner, contains all the necessary elements of which a scientific paper consists. You are able to sensibly compare the results of your own research with the experimental results of other authors.
The most important flaw of the paper is the methodology presented.
I believe that too few growing seasons were taken into account. In agricultural research, results from three years of research are usually accepted. Good conclusions cannot be drawn on the basis of only two years, even though conditions in those years were comparable.
In principle, the paper does not require correction. Two minor comments:
Please paste a map with the study site.
Please specifically indicate the composition of nitrogen fertilizers used in this study.
Did you test soil abundance of primary nutrients? mineral nitrogen? organic matter?
Did you protect the plantation from pathogens?
Did you apply organic fertilizers?
Author Response
Dear Authors,
you have presented a good agronomic work. It is written in an appropriate manner, contains all the necessary elements of which a scientific paper consists. You are able to sensibly compare the results of your own research with the experimental results of other authors.
The most important flaw of the paper is the methodology presented.
I believe that too few growing seasons were taken into account. In agricultural research, results from three years of research are usually accepted. Good conclusions cannot be drawn on the basis of only two years, even though conditions in those years were comparable.
Response: Dear reviewer, thank you so much for the review of this manuscript and for providing important suggestions on how to further improve the manuscript. Please find below our response to your comments and recommendations.
In principle, the paper does not require correction. Two minor comments:
Please paste a map with the study site.
Please specifically indicate the composition of nitrogen fertilizers used in this study.
Did you test soil abundance of primary nutrients? mineral nitrogen? organic matter?
Response: Information on the fertilizer composition of the primary nutrients (N, P2O5, and K2O) is presented in section 2.2 (Pre-planting and planting operations) of the manuscript
No organic matter or soil amendments was applied throughout the study duration
Did you protect the plantation from pathogens?
Response: Yes, weekly applications of plant pathogen prevention was carried out throughout the study duration.
Did you apply organic fertilizers?
Response: No organic fertilizer was applied in the study.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript “Agronomy-1394207” entitled “Optimizing Tomato Growth and Productivity Using Irrigation and Nitrogen Application Timing” by Ayankojo and Morgan deals with an interesting subject regarding the effects of N and irrigation application timing on biomass accumulation, root growth, and yield in open field fresh-market tomato production. In this study, 2 N application timings applied at 25% pre-plant with 75% fertigation (BM) and zero pre-plant with 100% fertigation (NB) were evaluated. The two N application methods were evaluate using 3 irrigation regimes; full irrigation (FI, 100% ETc), deficit irrigation (DI, 66% ETc), and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI, 66% ETc during the first 4 weeks after transplanting and 100% ETc afterward). The results of the present study revealed that the increase in plant growth for the BM treatments was due to higher soil N concentration (from the pre-plant applied N) early in the growing season compared to the NB treatments. Similar to plant growth, tomato yield was significantly increased with the application of pre-plant N fertilizer (average valued 56 Mg ha-1) compared to N fertilizer application at 100% fertigation (average value 40.23 Mg ha-1). In addition, the application of DI throughout the growing season reduced tomato yield, however, there were no differences in yield under RDI and FI irrigation regimes.
For “Agronomy”, the topic and content are appropriate. Scientific content and the manuscript size are appropriate. The introduction provides sufficient background and includes all relevant references. The novelty of the results is above the average of novelty knowledge. The title and the abstract of the manuscript are also appropriate. The editing and linguistic quality are good. The quality of citations is appropriate. In general, the quality of the experiment is well performed and follows rigid scientific logic. However, there are some points that need attention I would like to recommend a major revision is required for the reasons listed below:
- The abstract is too long (334 words when the limit is about 200 words) and descriptive.
- Keywords: Please change some keywords. Title and keywords must not contain the same words.
- Line 40: “[4,5]” instead of “[4], [5]”
- Materials and Methods: Authors must present in a table the physicochemical properties of the soil used in the experiment. Authors should also define the dates of transplanting and the dates of all measurements and fruit harvest (in days after transplanting). In addition, they should explain the duration of each crop growth stage (CGS) in the main text and not only in Table 3.
- Line 74: “…Florida (26O...)” instead of “…Florida ((26O…)”
- Table 1: “Fertigation of BM3 started at 3 weeks after transplanting” instead of “Fertigation of BM2 started at 2 weeks after transplanting”
- Line 134: Add information about the manufacturer of SmartIrrigation (SI) application.
- Line 145: Migliaccio et al. (2016). Add this article in the references section.
- Line 213: “[22-24]” instead of “[22]-[24]”
- Figure 3: The axis titles are very hard to read. Please fix this problem.
- Figures 6 and 7: Please define what horizontal bars indicate
- Discussion: The discussion section must be enhanced. The authors should further refer to previous studies with regard to the irrigation and nitrogen Application effect on tomato growth. For instance, they can include the following papers in order to enrich the discussion section:
-
- Massantini, R.; Radicetti, E.; Frangipane, M.T.; Campiglia, E. Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Changes under Different Cover Crops, Soil Tillage and Nitrogen Fertilization Management. Agriculture 2021, 11, 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11020106
- Shabbir, A.; Mao, H.; Ullah, I.; Buttar, N.A.; Ajmal, M.; Solangi, K.A. Improving Water Use Efficiency by Optimizing the Root Distribution Patterns under Varying Drip Emitter Density and Drought Stress for Cherry Tomato. Agronomy 2021, 11, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11010003
- Line 402: “[25-28]” instead of “[25]-[28]”
- Line 410: “[29-31]” instead of “[29]-[31]”
- Lines 521-598: Authors should correct the form of references, as in the journal’s “Instructions for authors”
Thank you for your consideration.
Author Response
For “Agronomy”, the topic and content are appropriate. Scientific content and the manuscript size are appropriate. The introduction provides sufficient background and includes all relevant references. The novelty of the results is above the average of novelty knowledge. The title and the abstract of the manuscript are also appropriate. The editing and linguistic quality are good. The quality of citations is appropriate. In general, the quality of the experiment is well performed and follows rigid scientific logic. However, there are some points that need attention I would like to recommend a major revision is required for the reasons listed below:
Response: Dear reviewer, thank you so much for the review of this manuscript and for providing important suggestions on how to further improve the manuscript. Please find below our response to your comments and recommendations.
The abstract is too long (334 words when the limit is about 200 words) and descriptive.
Response: The abstract was edited, and the length was reduced in the revised manuscript
Keywords: Please change some keywords. Title and keywords must not contain the same words.
Response: Thank you for a detailed review of this manuscript. The keywords were modified as recommended.
Line 40: “[4,5]” instead of “[4], [5]”
Response: Reference style was corrected.
Materials and Methods: Authors must present in a table the physicochemical properties of the soil used in the experiment. Authors should also define the dates of transplanting and the dates of all measurements and fruit harvest (in days after transplanting). In addition, they should explain the duration of each crop growth stage (CGS) in the main text and not only in Table 3.
Response: The physicochemical properties of the soil at the study site was included in the manuscript. Please see Table 1.
All samplings were conducted at each growth stages. Information on each stage duration in days after transplanting were added to table 3 of the revised manuscript.
Line 74: “…Florida (26O...)” instead of “…Florida ((26O…)”
Response: Thank you such a detailed review of this manuscript the excess “(“ was removed.
Table 1: “Fertigation of BM3 started at 3 weeks after transplanting” instead of “Fertigation of BM2 started at 2 weeks after transplanting”
Response: Thank you. This footnote was appropriately corrected.
Line 134: Add information about the manufacturer of SmartIrrigation (SI) application.
Response: There is no sole manufacturer of the SmartIrrigation system. It was developed by group of researchers at the Universities of Florida and Georgia. Migliaccio et al., 2016 was referenced in the manuscript for additional information about this irrigation scheduling system.
Line 145: Migliaccio et al. (2016). Add this article in the references section.
Response: Thank you for catching this. The citation was modified to the appropriate format
Line 213: “[22-24]” instead of “[22]-[24]”
Response: Great. All references were appropriately formatted in the revised manuscript.
Figure 3: The axis titles are very hard to read. Please fix this problem.
Response: Figure 3 was modified in the revised manuscript.
Figures 6 and 7: Please define what horizontal bars indicate
Response: Error bars indicated 1 standard error. This information was added in the revised manuscript.
Discussion: The discussion section must be enhanced. The authors should further refer to previous studies with regard to the irrigation and nitrogen Application effect on tomato growth. For instance, they can include the following papers in order to enrich the discussion section:
Massantini, R.; Radicetti, E.; Frangipane, M.T.; Campiglia, E. Quality of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Changes under Different Cover Crops, Soil Tillage and Nitrogen Fertilization Management. Agriculture 2021, 11, 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11020106
Shabbir, A.; Mao, H.; Ullah, I.; Buttar, N.A.; Ajmal, M.; Solangi, K.A. Improving Water Use Efficiency by Optimizing the Root Distribution Patterns under Varying Drip Emitter Density and Drought Stress for Cherry Tomato. Agronomy 2021, 11, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11010003
Response: Thank you for the comment. The results section was buttressed with more findings from the literature.
Line 402: “[25-28]” instead of “[25]-[28]”
Line 410: “[29-31]” instead of “[29]-[31]”
Lines 521-598: Authors should correct the form of references, as in the journal’s “Instructions for authors”
Response: Thank you so much for these comments. All references were formatted.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors studied the nitrogen and irrigation timing of application.
The study is interesting. However, the authors must provide a better discussion of the results.
In fact, the results were not discussed with other studies.
The main points are cited below. Other minors are cited in the revised version of the manuscript.
Please, revise for all the tables.
In general, the manuscript is not well discussed.
Comparison with other studies should be realized.
How nitrogen and irrigation affect plant growth?
Please, discuss and explain how irrigation and N influence the tomato yield.
In which biochemical pathways nitrogen promote higher yield?
Nitrogen is the most important nutrient for several plant species and participates as an element in several substances present in the plant. In addition to being a component of amino acids, nitrogenous bases and ketone bodies, the nitrogen is present in the chlorophyll molecules. Therefore, significant correlation between chlorophyll and nitrogen was expected cultivation and this reflected on plant production variables. Nitrogen in plant plays critical role of biomolecules (e.g. chlorophylls, proteins) constitution and diverse studies found a direct and significant correlation between chlorophyll and nitrogen content in plant tissue which may impact higher yields.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
The authors studied the nitrogen and irrigation timing of application.
The study is interesting. However, the authors must provide a better discussion of the results.
In general, the manuscript is not well discussed.
Comparison with other studies should be realized.
How nitrogen and irrigation affect plant growth?
In fact, the results were not discussed with other studies.
Response: Dear reviewer, thank you so much for the review of this manuscript and for providing important suggestions on how to further improve the manuscript. Please find below our response to the rest of your comments and recommendations. The results section was buttressed with more findings from the literature.
The main points are cited below. Other minors are cited in the revised version of the manuscript.
Please, revise for all the tables.
Response: All tables were revised for font size and commented in the manuscript
Please, discuss and explain how irrigation and N influence the tomato yield.
In which biochemical pathways nitrogen promote higher yield?
Response: Thank you so much for providing such an important comment on this manuscript. The main goal of this study was to determine the impact of modifying N and irrigation timing on tomato productivity. Therefore, impacts of irrigation and N on the biochemical pathways are considered out of the scope of this research interest of the study.
Nitrogen is the most important nutrient for several plant species and participates as an element in several substances present in the plant. In addition to being a component of amino acids, nitrogenous bases and ketone bodies, the nitrogen is present in the chlorophyll molecules. Therefore, significant correlation between chlorophyll and nitrogen was expected cultivation and this reflected on plant production variables. Nitrogen in plant plays critical role of biomolecules (e.g. chlorophylls, proteins) constitution and diverse studies found a direct and significant correlation between chlorophyll and nitrogen content in plant tissue which may impact higher yields.
Response: Dear reviewer, again, your suggestions is highly appreciated. The molecular responses of tomato plants to N and/or irrigation application were not measured in this study thus were not discussed.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The text has been corrected according to my suggestions. Responses to comments are satisfactory.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript has been improved according to the suggestions. The authors provide sufficient information in the discussion part.
