Evaluation of Growth and Production Parameters of Raspberries and Blackberries Cultivated in Romania

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Raspberry and blackberry are popular fruit owing to rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. The present analyzed the vegetative and productive parameters (shoot heights, stem diameters, number of fruits and their sizes) under natural environmental conditions, used polynomial and hyperbolic interpolation formulas fitting the relationship of the production and growth parameters. The original data of this paper were be worth reporting and can support the hypothesis in some ways. The research content of this paper lacks innovation, and the research method scale is also very small, cannot reflect “the temperate continental zone” as shown in Title.

Specific comments:

1.The title should be corrected, the research zone is only in Romania, cannot reflect “the temperate continental zone”.

2.The Abstract section is verbose and redundant, the results of this study were not highlighted.

3.In Introduction section, too much content leads to poor logical reading. The content of Lines 33-38, Lines 48-53, Lines 54-61 can combine into one paragraph. The Introduction section can be carried out from the introduction of the two kinds of fruits, the influence of environmental factors in the growth process and yield, and the content of this study.

4.In Materials and Methods section, (1) add the latitude and longitude coordinates of Figure 1; (2) add the soil physical and chemical property parameters; (3) the experiment is executed in natural environmental conditions, the whole environmental factor is not controllable, whether it can truthfully reflect the situation of the whole region of the temperate continental zone.

5.Discussion: Most of the discussion content is results content, and have more descriptive language. This section should be re-written, some direct comparisons with other studies can be added to highlight the innovation of this study.

6.Some quantifiers can be abbreviated after it first appeared, such as gram (g), meters (m).

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The study investigated an interesting topic ‘Evaluation of growth and production parameters of raspberries 2 and blackberries cultivated in the temperate continental zone’ which produced some interesting results. However, before acceptance, the following must be considered

1. Line 20 – 25: During the study period, good shoot formation 20 was observed, with an average height of 1400 mm for raspberries and 3474 mm for black- 21 berries; a good development of the average stem diameter of 8.54 mm for raspberries and 22 12.78 mm for blackberries, of the number of ripe fruits harvested, all of which are corre- 23 lated with increased productivity of 820 grams/plant for raspberries and 2050 grams/plant 24 for blackberries……. There is a mention of correlation here, I expect to see some correlation result here. What’s the r-value ?
2. Line 25 – 28: The polynomial and hyperbolic interpolation formulas obtained are ad- 25 equate and can be used for forecasting raspberry and blackberry production and for opti- 26 mizing the growth and development processes of the two crops…….. What is r-square value ? why the use of hyperbolic polynomial equation/relationship. Did you test the linear equation approach/equation, which is commonly used in agriculture for crop productivity. Even when polynomial relationship, which could be in the order of 2, 3, 4 and so on are used, there is a need to linearize
3. Line 74 – 76: There are many studies [16-22] regarding the vegetative and productive parameters 74 of berries under certain growing conditions, in different climate and soil areas, so as to 75 obtain optimal yields to satisfy the demands of consumers around the world ……. Please, expand on these previous work. It is not complete to just reference them. But give brief outcome from their studies. What is the limitations from their study ? what did they observe in their study and from there the research gap could be obviously identified, and consequently the innovation of the study. Please, revise
4. Line 92 – 94: . Therefore, this study provides some new clues for 92 studying the correlation of raspberry and blackberry growth indices with plant produc- 93 tivity in the future. ….. Please, end this part with actionable objectives
5. In section 2.1 of M & M, I expect to see thorough and comprehensive soil analysis like N, P, K, Na, Bulk density, Porosity and also the soil textural types. Please, include
6. How was the soil moisture presented in Table 2 measured ? gravimetric method or what ?
7. What is the field capacity of the soil and what is the volumetric ions content presented in Table 2. What is its significance in the study and why it’s reported. Please, justify
8. Line 214 and 215: The correlation analyses of the growth parameters were performed using the Mi- 214 crosoft Office Excel - 2010 software. ……………. What parameter did you consider with this correlation ? Your considering Pearson correlation ? if so state it. If the correlation you are refering to is r-value, also mention it
9. Line 216 and 217: The calculations of the coefficients in the interpolation polynomials were performed 216 using the interpolation function of the MathCAD 15 program …………. What are you interpolating ?
10. Table 3 lack the presentation of ANOVA….Separate the means using posthoc test
11. Since you have two factors; Raspberries and Blackberrie, separate the means of the growth parameters using T – test
12. Table 4 should highlight the importance of the correlation analysis, maybe you what to know the growth parameter that relate more with the yield of the crops
13. Why the hyperbolic and polynomial relationships

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Abstract

- lines 27-29: „The results obtained support farmers who cultivate raspberries and blackberries in natural conditions, in the tem-28 perate continental zone. “ In which way are your results helpful and exceptional for growers?

Introduction

- lines 74-94: hypothesis is weakly processed. Why are your locality exceptional for raspberries and blackberries? Was it non-suitable for their growing and now (climate change) is it suitable?

Methods

- evaluation of growth, yield and qualitative parameters is insufficient for article in Web of Science. In introduction, you are discussing about climate effect. In case of one-year experiment, it is not climate effect but just different temperature etc. among months what is normal and it is not necessary to test/evaluate it.

- using of just one cultivar and then doing of exact conclusions, especially in case of climate change, is unsufficient. Cultivars have different sensitivity to different climate conditions, different character and fast of growth etc. Thus, more cultivars should be used for experiment of this type.

- reason for selection of used cultivars should be shortly described

- chapter 2.3: I would divided it - climate data belong to methods. Evaluation of climate parameters could be moved to results.

Results

Chapter 3.1 - results could be presented in more interesting way, may be shorter with emphasis on the most significant findings

Discussion

- as it is abovementioned, in the case of climate evaluation, more growing years should be used. In 2025, different climate conditions will probably be in growing period and different results will be gained, especially in connection to last years where long-term dryness is recorded in different months.

- lines 386-392: this is evidence for cultivar effect what should have been tested in your experiment.

Conclusions

Exact recommendation for grower (or future research) should be added.

 

General evaluation

Topic is interesting. Climate is of the most significant factors influencing on yield and quality of crops. It is necessary to find for cultivars with „plasticity“, thus with possibility of stable yield in different conditions. From this reason, more years and cultivars should be tested in connection to climate. I recommend to do next year, may be add next cultivar, and then try to publish paper in Web of Science journals. Your results are very preliminary now.

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The introduction section of the manuscript is too long and redundant, it is suggested to reorganize the language and reduce some content.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

The authors have addressed almost all the comments. However, there remains some further minor points to be addressed before acceptance

• Table 1 gives details of some method of analysis. This is good, but should be followed by references. Each parameter should be followed by references.

For the pH authors can reference Wu et al., 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2024.153608.) and Yang et al., 2023 (https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11061737)

 

For the Bulk density, cite; Blake, G.R., Hartage, K.H., 1986. Bulk density. Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 1. Physical and Mineralogical Methods A. Klute Agronomy Monograph No. 9, 2nd Ed. pp. 363–375 Madison, WI, USA.

 

For the porosity, cite Yang et al., 2023 (https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11061737) and Yang et al., 2022 (https://doi.org/10.3390/app12157601)

 

     For the organic matter, cite Yao et al., 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.03.069)   

     and Faloye et al., 2024 (10.3390/agronomy14081761)

           

            For the Soil texture using sedimentation method, author should cite Yang et al., 2023 (https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1141155)

 

• Please change g/cm³ to g cm^-3 in Table 1 and should be applied all through

 

• In section 2.4, authors had already started presenting results. This is not ideal. All these should be moved to the results and discussion section. Instead of present the coefficient of correlation values, authors could choose to mention that the coefficient of correlation or determination, if r-square is preferred was determined between the parameters. please state the variables. Also, cite some references to justify this correlation, particularly those that have successfully used it in science…. Some of the citations that could be applied are given below

 

1. Deng et al., 2019 (10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02381)
2. Zhiquan et al., 2015 (https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Relationships+between+water-cement+ratio+and+rheological+characteristics+of+Power-law+cement+grouts&btnG=)

 

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

I understand your opinion and thank you for exact answers. After your revision, article is more understandable and well-prepared. Now, I have just minor notes:

a) Introduction - 2nd line: please, fill latin name for raspberry and blackberry. It should be fine and clear for reader (latin name is mentioned in methods, but I think it could be better to give it in the first place in introduction)

b) nice description of used cultivars - in the case of your study about their adaptability in experimental region, it could be fine to mention origin of these cultivars (country of breeding). It could be interesting information for reader who could compare country origin and real location with your experimental climate

c) table 1: use upper index for cm3

d) Methods - I am not sure if I understand information. Have you done irrigation during experiment? If yes, please mention by which way water was filled.

 

I recommend to publish paper after minor revision.

Author Response

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