Mid-Term Effects of Conservative Soil Management and Fruit-Zone Early Leaf Removal Treatments on the Performance of Nerello Mascalese (Vitis vinifera L.) Grapes on Mount Etna (Southern Italy)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Line 206-207: In fact all of the values presented on Figure 2 are negative values. Please rephrase the sentence. ELR-MT treatment showed less negative results than other treatments.

Line 207-208: About which shoots of NLR-MT are you writting: primary or lateral? Please specify.

Figures 3 and 4 are hard to analyse. The use colors are very similar, the fon is too small. If you can't change the colors maybe try to present the data as another chart type? On Figure 4 the ABCD letters are missing.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

please find in attach the specific comments to the requested revisions

Best regards

Filippo Ferlito

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Interesting article on an important topic for the sustainable viticulture in Mediterranean area. Statistical approach seems proper and well described.

I propose to check carefully two references:

n° 4 (line 413) does not appear related to text in line 51;

n°21 (line 452) does not mentioned the soil classification in Mount Etna, alternatively I propose the article:

A.E. Agnelli, G. Corti, A. Agnelli, P. Del Carlo, M. Coltelli, F.C. Ugolini Features of some paleosols on the flanks of Etna volcano (Italy) and their origin Geoderma, 142 (2007), pp. 112-126

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

please find in attach the specific comments to the requested revisions

Best regards

Filippo Ferlito

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The work presented in the manuscript provides information about the  influence of minimum tillage (MT) combined with  early leaf removal  on the performance of black grapevine variety Nerello Mascalese.  The experimental vineyard was located in a peculiar area at the Mount Etna, East Sicily, where the evaluation of soil management techniques is of particular interest. The early leaf removal is a largely studied summer pruning tecnique with several effects on yield and quality of grape.

The topic is interesting but the manuscript showed some flaws.

The main one regards the lack of appropriate statistical analysis.  The presented  results are often  confusing and the differences among  treatments are not always clear from a statistical point of view. It is not possible to understand if there is any interaction between the two main factors,  “tillage” and “leaf removal” over two years.  The Table 3 and Table 4 are unclear and are not discussed nor mentioned in the text. I suggest a revision of the presentation of the results associated with an appropriate statistical analysis.

The discussion need to be improved and the conclusions need to be strongly supported by the results.

Some other aspects to be considered by the authors:

Lines 56-60. I suggest to describe with greater depth the different techniques, zero tillage, minimum tillage, etc.

Line 70. The authors include among the aims of the trial the evaluation of beneficial effects of leaf removal on reduction of fungal disease but no results on these aspects are reported. I suggest to include some results on this issue.

Line 79. Modify  ESE in WSW

Line 80 . Remove trellis and change  “trunk” with “permanent cordon”

Lines 148-155. The Statistical analyses and the presentation of the data need to be revised and clarified.

Line 161. The Authors should explain the degree days (base 10°C) and change the GG with GDD, Growing Degree Days

Table 2 As previously mentioned the Table is really difficult to read. I suggest to simplify it, by removing the standard deviation and including an appropriate analysis. 

Verify the data of Titratable acidity which shows exceedingly low values.

The Figures are too small. I suggest to increase the dimension of the simbols and of the legends.

Lines 205 and 206. I suggest to report the results according the statistical significance.

Line 228. The authors claims that “MT vines had significantly higher values of Pn”, but it is not clear which is the compared treatment.  The sentence is too vague.

Discussion: In general terms the discussion need to be improved with other references concerning both tillage and lef removal to compare the results of the trial with other results obtained with  similar approaches.

Line 306. It will be useful to add a reference reporting the  anthocyanic profile of Nerello Mascalese.

Lines 328- 331. The authors should better explain the role of bud fertility reduction on yield decrease in  ELR in 2018.  From table 2 data this involvement is not so evident, while the yield reduction in ELR seems to be mainly linked to berry set reduction. Authors should improve the discussion on the effects of ELR increasing the literature on the topic in this point.

Lines 337-339. The author should clarify and improve the discussion of the results on CT vines.

Lines  343 -345.  One of the most solid effect of LR at flowering is the yield control so  it should be an expected  results.  I suggest to rephrase the sentence.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

please find in attach the specific comments to the requested revisions

Best regards

Filippo Ferlito

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript has been improved.

 There seems to be a misunderstanding since I suggested to include some information on Nerello Mascalese profile anthocyanins  in lane 321 where was reported "that acylated derivatives are very scarse".

The authors answered including the lines 382-385 concerning the analyses of dried pomace citing a reference,  Amico et al.,.  I suggest to delete the lines 382 and 385 and also the reference since they both are not pertinent to the   topic.