Effect of Nitrogen Application Methods on Yield and Grain Quality of an Extremely Early Maturing Rice Variety
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments to Author
This is a time demanding manuscript. They tried to find out the Nitrogen Application methods on yield and grain quality of rice. I appreciate to publish this kind of manuscript.
However, I have some observation to publish this manuscript.
Ø Title should be change. Effect of ……………….on yield and grain quality of rice.
Ø Line 111-112. How you maintain the amount of temperature? Explain.
Ø Author use SPAD data in their manuscript. However, they don’t describe in methods section.
Ø In result section, the showed one time SPAD value in figure 2. If possible show the SPAD value of different time period.
Ø Serious problems related to references. Most of the references are old. You have to use current references.
Ø Some of the references are irrelevant. Use relevant references.
Ø Authors should read the authors guideline carefully. They make some minor mistake due overlook the author guideline.
Ø Author should avoid the long sentences. Make the long sentences to simple sentences.
Ø Follow the Author guidelines for ‘References’.
Ø Also see the attached manuscript for minor corrections.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript and provide your valuable feedback. We appreciate your thoroughness and attention to detail. Your comments have helped to improve the quality of our work, and we are grateful for your insights and suggestions. You made 10 comments and I responded to each one.
- Title should be change. Effect of ……………….on yield and grain quality of rice.
- Thank you for your comment. We appreciate your suggestion. I think the phrase 'extremely mature rice variety' is necessary because commonly grown rice yields completely different results from the results of this study.
- Line 111-112. How you maintain the amount of temperature? Explain.
- Thank you for your comment and your interest in our study. We did not control the temperature during our study. In Korea, early maturing rice varieties are typically harvested when the accumulated temperature reaches 1,000℃ after heading. The accumulated temperature is calculated as the sum of the daily mean temperature after the heading date, which takes approximately 40 days on average.
- Author use SPAD data in their manuscript. However, they don’t describe in methods section.
- Thank you for your comment. The following information has been added to the manuscript. The SPAD value was measured at the heading date using a Chlorophyll Meter (SPAD-502, Minolta Camera Co., Japan). Ten plants were randomly selected from each plot, and the center of the top 2nd leaf of each plant was measured.
- In result section, the showed one time SPAD value in figure 2. If possible show the SPAD value of different time period.
- Thank you for your comment. In this study, SPAD values were measured only once, as we thought that the value at heading date was considered the most important. However, in future studies, I plan to investigate variations in SPAD values across different varieties and transplanting times.
- Serious problems related to references. Most of the references are old. You have to use current references.
- Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected.
- Some of the references are irrelevant. Use relevant references.
- Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected.
- Authors should read the authors guideline carefully. They make some
minor mistake due overlook the author guideline.
- Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected.
- Author should avoid the long sentences. Make the long sentences to
simple sentences.
- Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected.
- Follow the Author guidelines for ‘References’.
- Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected.
- Also see the attached manuscript for minor corrections.
- Thank you for your comment. The manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected.
Once again, thank you for your helpful comments and suggestions. We hope that the revised manuscript meets your expectations.
Sincerely,
Yeotae Yun
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Agriculture – 2315267 –
In this paper the authors suggest a technique for appying Nitrogen to a very early-maturing rice variety. The results indicate the application of N-fertilizers in full, just after the transplant (BD) have no detrimental effects – as far as rice quality is concerned. It may become a labor-saving technology.
It would be useful to add to M&M the details of the “paddy fields”, including a more detailed soil analysis. And which N-carrier was used!
The N-content was estimated through its correlation to SPAD. However, as the % protein of grains are presented (Table 5) we suppose some N-determinations were made. Was it only for grains ?(M&M). If we are interested in understanding what went on in this process as far as Plant Nutrition is concerned and have a NUE-estimated, it would be necessary to know at least the N-carriers, and the N-content of the rice plants besides SPAD correlations .
However, the authors did, for sure, what Experiment Stations are supposed to do : “generate new technologies for crop production”.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for taking the time to review our manuscript and provide your valuable feedback. We appreciate your thoroughness and attention to detail. Your comments have helped to improve the quality of our work, and we are grateful for your insights and suggestions. You made 2 comments and I responded to each one.
- It would be useful to add to M&M the details of the “paddy fields”, including a more detailed soil analysis. And which N-carrier was used!
- Thank you for your comment. We appreciate your suggestion. The soil analysis results are all in the paper (Table 1), and urea was used for nitrogen fertilizer, and the content was added to the text.
- The N-content was estimated through its correlation to SPAD. However, as the % protein of grains are presented (Table 5) we suppose some N-determinations were made. Was it only for grains? (M&M). If we are interested in understanding what went on in this process as far as Plant Nutrition is concerned and have a NUE-estimated, it would be necessary to know at least the N-carriers, and the N-content of the rice plants besides SPAD correlations.
- Thank you for your comment and your interest in our study. In this experiment, we estimated the nitrogen content of the rice grains based on their SPAD values, and did not perform any direct nitrogen determination for the grains. However, we agree that it would be useful to have more detailed information on the nitrogen carriers and content in rice plants, in order to better understand the process of plant nutrition and estimate NUE. We will use it as a reference for future research.
In addition, the manuscript was thoroughly reviewed and corrected. Once again, thank you for your helpful comments and suggestions. We hope that the revised manuscript meets your expectations.
Sincerely,
Yeotae Yun
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
