The Evaluation of the Effects of Zn, and Amino Acid-Containing Foliar Fertilizers on the Physiological and Biochemical Responses of a Hungarian Fodder Corn Hybrid

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Editor Journal of Agronomy

Manuscript ID: agronomy-1792125

I re-reviewed the manuscript (The evaluation of the effects of Zn, and amino acid-containing foliar fertilizers on the physiological and biochemical responses of a Hungarian fodder corn hybrid) again and the authors made all the amendments that I asked before so I think the manuscript is suitable for publishing

Regards

Author Response

The authors thank for the reviewer’s time for checking the revised version of their manuscript. In addition, thanks a lot they accepted our revised manuscript.  

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript presents interesting research results. Nevertheless, I have a few serious and minor remarks.

The first one concerns the duration of the experiment. Why were the studies conducted only in one growing season? It is assumed that the field studies last longer than 1 year. It is assumed that at least 2 years of research give a broader idea of ​​the experiment and allow for the synthesis of research results. This allows for the presentation of field studies in terms of the variability of soil and climatic conditions and confirmation of the obtained results (exclusion of variability that may result, for example, from weather anomalies).

The fact that the research was conducted for one year seems to disqualify the experiment from being a field research.

In the introduction (Lines 65 and 79-82) the authors mention the influence of potassium on plants. Since the content of the article talks about studying the effects of Zn, what is the purpose of describing potassium? Other elements are also needed during plant vegetation and have not been mentioned. I suggest removing the mention of potassium.

In the results of the research under the figures and their captions, there are sentences that should constitute an integral part of the description of the figure. For example, Lines 109-111, however, this remark applies to all figures.

Then, the figures are made in a different font than the rest of the manuscript, which visually destroys the effect of the consistency of the work. The drawings are made carelessly, so I suggest improving their aesthetics.

The SD on the charts is very large and often overlaps, which raises doubts as to the significance of the indicated differences. It is possible that this is the error percentage at a certain mean value that is automatically generated when creating the figure and adding SD?

Values ​​reported in the body of the manuscript should be reported to three significant places. The content of the manuscript varies.

In addition, the content of the manuscript lacks an indication of a utilitarian conclusion and the ability to apply the test results in practice, which is usually the basis for field research.

Author Response

The authors thank for the reviewer's comments. Please find the responses to the comments attached. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The Authors significantly improved the manuscript and fully responded to my comments, so I suggest accepting the manuscript for publication in the Journal.

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

see the attach file

Reviewer 2 Report

Moderate changes in the English language required. It is necessary to elaborate the results and change the letters in the figures (the letter a indicates statistical maxima).

All comments and suggestions are marked in text.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Manuscript: "The evaluation of the effects of Zn, and amino acid-containing foliar fertilizers on the physiological and biochemical responses of a Hungarian fodder corn hybrid" presented by Brigitta Tóth, Makoena Joyce Moloi, Árpád Illés, Csaba Bojtor, Lóránt Szőke and János Nagy presents an interesting issue, but it is not prepared carefully, which makes it difficult to understand.

Foliar fertilization is an important substitute for mineral fertilization and allows to supplement nutritional deficiencies during plant vegetation and to eliminate current deficiencies and damages. Moreover, zinc is a microelement of great yield-generating importance. A plant that is well fed with zinc from the beginning of vegetation effectively uses nitrogen from the soil. In addition, it affects the synthesis and increase in the activity of growth hormones, which ensures the proper development of plants. Zinc has a positive effect on the nitrogen balance of plants, which enables the reduction of nitrogen fertilization with a better use of this macronutrient.

The methods at work are applied correctly and the results are promising, however, the presented research is one year only (2020), which seems to disqualify the experiment as field research. It is assumed that at least 2 years of research give a broader picture of the experiment and allow for the synthesis of test results and the exclusion of variability that may result, for example, from weather analomalies.

The results presented in the article are interesting, but in my opinion, in their current form, are not suitable for publication in Agronomy. After supplementing the research with another year or the results of preliminary pot experiments, the publication could appear in Agronomy, but at the moment I believe that the data presented by the authors are insufficient.