Optimization of Cultivation Type and Temperature for the Production of Balloon Flower (Platycodongrandiflorum A. DC) Sprouts in a Plant Factory with Artificial Lighting
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
- 03. 28.
Editor-in-Chief
Horticulturea
My coauthors and I would like to submit the new version of a revised manuscript after peer-review entitled “Optimization of Cultivation Type and Temperature for Production of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Sprouts in a Plant Factory” after considering and improving over the reviewers’ comments.
We are grateful for your and reviewers’ comments and suggestions. After getting reviewers’ comments on our manuscript, we revised it with a response message (yellow marked in the manuscript) following the comments and suggestions.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Ki-Ho Son, Ph.D.
Associated Professor,
Vegetable Science and Protected Horticulture Lab.
Department of Horticultural Science
Gyeongsang National University
33 Dongjin-ro, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52725, Korea
Tel +82-55-772-3253
Mobile +82-10-6698-9998
Fax +82-55-772-3257
Reviewer 1
Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorum), as a medicinal, edible and ornamental plant, is widely use in China, Japan, and korea. The natural resources of wild resource of this plant are gradually becoming exhausted since over demand. So, modern artificial cultivation P. grandiflorum to meet the demand of people is becoming very important. In this manuscript, authors established optimal artificial cultivation conditions for the stable production of this plant. But before finishing the following revision, I can’t recommend its publication.
- In figure 2, the icon of soil and soilless cultivation need be added.
=> We revised this figure 2 and added the new figure.
- In introduction part, the reference of “(Sui et al., 2014)” should be added in the reference part, and style of this reference should be uniform to others.
=> We changed this reference and added the new one (Reference 1; Line 39).
- In plant materials part, the size, physiological status, and other background of these roots are not clear. If they are uniform or not, and they are grouped at randomly? Please add the corresponding information.
=> We used one-year-old balloon flower roots with an average 7 cm length. We were informed it in the Line 105-106.
“One-year-old Platycodon grandiflorum seedlings (roots; the average length of the seedlings was 7 cm) were used as experimental material.”
- In Figure 1 and 2, n=10, in my opinion based on statistics, it has scientific significance with 30 samples in small sample. Maybe the authors should enlarge the numbers of samples.
=> Thank you for your scrupulous comments. We have used ten plants (replicates) with three repeats (total 30 replicates). We carefully checked and revised the statistics in the figures and tables. Also, we added statistical analysis section in the M&M. (Line 114-116 & 148-152)
“The growth characteristics and saponin analysis were measured in 30 replicates per treatment. For statistical analysis, data were analyzed by SAS 9.2 program (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) with variance analysis. Duncan’s multiple range test was used to verify the significant differences in all treatments at p < 0.05. All graphs were created using the SigmaPlot (12 Version, Systat Software Inc., San Jose, CA, USA).”
- There are some problems in the reference part.
Doi of 3, 7, 8, 9. 21, 24, 29, 30 should be supplied.
Latin names in reference 3, 30, and 31 need be in italics.
Unnecessary italics in reference 8 need be deleted (The name of the reference).
=> Due to some changes of the order numbers of refererences (added new one and removed one unsuitable one), we mentioned as the new order numbers. We added DOI in reference 4, 8, 9, 21, 22, 23 (24 already had DOI), 29, 30. We also revived italics in references.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments to the authors:
The experiment was well conducted and the processes have been described in the article “Optimization of Cultivation Type and Temperature for Production of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Sprouts in a Plant Factory”. I have following concerns regarding current manuscript that authors should consider while revising their manuscript.
-Please revise the objective in the abstract section.
-Authors should be consistent with the use of the degree Celsius symbol. At some points its with space and at on some other points its with the space, so please be consistent with its format.
-Revise this sentence and make it a meaningful one. “The plant height results showed a similar trend to the shoot fresh and dry weights”. Authors can talk about the similar increase or decrease trend as given by another studies.
-Kindly add the future recommendation at the end of the abstract section.
-I recommend decreasing the number of keywords. Five keywords are enough.
-“Due to its huge development value and prospects for more applications in the coming years, the natural resources of wild balloon flower are at risk of being gradually exhausted to meet society’s
needs.” Mention the reason behind this risk.
-Please add the PFALs diagram for the easy understanding of the picture.
-Authors should provide the research hypothesis at the end of the introduction section.
-Heading 2.1. What were the conditions under which plants were grown, from where the samples were taken for the experiment?
-Provide the experimental pics along with the DFT system.
-How 70% humidity was maintained in the experiment? Moreover, why the experiment was conducted for 17 days specifically?
-Heading 2.3. 1st line. Use sentence case please and write the full name of HPLC.
-Fig 1 a,b. Please clear that either the weight is of per plant or per pot?
-Fig 3b. Please re-check the lettering, needs revision of the applied statistics.
-Authors should cite few more recent and relevant studies in the discussion section.
-Authors should rewrite the conclusion with clear future recommendations at the end of the conclusion.
-References should be according to the journal given format.
Author Response
- 03. 28.
Editor-in-Chief
Horticulturea
My coauthors and I would like to submit the new version of a revised manuscript after peer-review entitled “Optimization of Cultivation Type and Temperature for Production of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Sprouts in a Plant Factory” after considering and improving over the reviewers’ comments.
We are grateful for your and reviewers’ comments and suggestions. After getting reviewers’ comments on our manuscript, we revised it with a response message (yellow marked in the manuscript) following the comments and suggestions.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Ki-Ho Son, Ph.D.
Associated Professor,
Vegetable Science and Protected Horticulture Lab.
Department of Horticultural Science
Gyeongsang National University
33 Dongjin-ro, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52725, Korea
Tel +82-55-772-3253
Mobile +82-10-6698-9998
Fax +82-55-772-3257
Reviewer 2
The experiment was well conducted and the processes have been described in the article “Optimization of Cultivation Type and Temperature for Production of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Sprouts in a Plant Factory”. I have following concerns regarding current manuscript that authors should consider while revising their manuscript.
-Please revise the objective in the abstract section.
=> We added the objective in the abstract section (Line 13-14).
“The objective of this study was to determine the efficiency of the production of balloon flowers sprout’s saponin in a plant factory.”
-Authors should be consistent with the use of the degree Celsius symbol. At some points its with space and at on some other points its with the space, so please be consistent with its format.
=> We revised the degree Celsius symbol with space thoughout the text.
-Revise this sentence and make it a meaningful one. “The plant height results showed a similar trend to the shoot fresh and dry weights”. Authors can talk about the similar increase or decrease trend as given by another studies.
=> We revised it. (Line 25 & 162)
“The plant height results showed a similar increased trend to the shoot fresh and dry weights.”
-Kindly add the future recommendation at the end of the abstract section.
=> We added it in the abstract section. (Line 30-33)
Ultimately, our research will be a valuable resource for future research on the production of me-dicinal plants as a sprout and will provide basic information to establish methods for enhancing the growth and bioactive compounds in balloon flowers.
-I recommend decreasing the number of keywords. Five keywords are enough.
=> We revised the keywords. (Line 34)
-“Due to its huge development value and prospects for more applications in the coming years, the natural resources of wild balloon flower are at risk of being gradually exhausted to meet society’s
needs.” Mention the reason behind this risk.
=> We added for the reason of the risk in line 54-55.
“Due to its huge development value and prospects for more applications in the coming years and the over exploitation of balloon flower in wild area for industry application, the natural resources of wild balloon flower are at risk of being gradually exhausted to meet society’s needs.”
-Please add the PFALs diagram for the easy understanding of the picture.
=> We think we do not need to add the diagram of PFALs, because it is basis and popular system for for cultivating vegetables and medicinal plants with artificial light and controlled environment conditions and reported in vast studies. Our PFALs were based on the basis contruction, equipped with vertical multilayer shelves, air conditioner, fans. Light system is installed in every layer of shelves by LEDs or fluorescent lamps for be suitable to the experiments. The room temperature is control by air conditioner, while relative humidity and CO2 concentration are controlled by monitoring system in computer. Therefore, plants can be grown under the well-controlled environment conditions, without affected by outside conditions
-Authors should provide the research hypothesis at the end of the introduction section.
=> We added the research hypothesis in line 96-99.
-Heading 2.1. What were the conditions under which plants were grown, from where the samples were taken for the experiment?
=> We already referred the growth condition in line 109-113 and added the sampling methods in line 114-116.
“Samples for growth characteristics and saponin analysis were harvested at 17 days of transplanting, and 30 plants (divided shoot and root part) were randomly taken from each treatment (repetition; three repetitions in per treatment).”
-Provide the experimental pics along with the DFT system.
=> We think we do not need to add the experimental pics of DFT system, because it is basis system for for cultivating plants in plant factory and reported in vast studies (there are many papers in the world used DFT system in horticulture science). Previous our research (https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/11/2111/htm) already reported. If the pics of DFT system in this study think important, we consider it again. Please check our reponses.
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/11/2111/htm
-How 70% humidity was maintained in the experiment? Moreover, why the experiment was conducted for 17 days specifically?
=> In our study, we can use the monitoring system to set the relative humidiy in the cultivation system at 70%. However, we deeply check the environmental data again and changed it in line 111. (at 70 ± 10% relative humidity)
-Heading 2.3. 1st line. Use sentence case please and write the full name of HPLC.
=> We revised it in line 123-124 & 137.
-Fig 1 a,b. Please clear that either the weight is of per plant or per pot?
=> We revised this figure with “per plant”
-Fig 3b. Please re-check the lettering, needs revision of the applied statistics.
=> We carefully checked again and revised it.
-Authors should cite few more recent and relevant studies in the discussion section.
=> There is no study related to cultivation of this plant for the reference (especially in cultivation experiment), we do not have much more related references. We have received many advices from reviwers in previous publishcations for no added many references from other species or unrelavant issues. Therefore, we think we do the best for using references.
-Authors should rewrite the conclusion with clear future recommendations at the end of the conclusion.
=> We added future recommendations in the conclusion. (Line 344-346)
“Furthermore, this result may be used to improve the yield and quality of balloon flower spouts can be enhanced by environmental condition and can apply the food and natural products in the future.”
-References should be according to the journal given format.
=> We formatted the references according to journal.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors aimed to investigate the effects of culture systems and temperature conditions on the growth and saponin accumulation of balloon flower sprouts in controlled environment systems. The significance test for Fig. 3 need to be check carefully.
Author Response
- 03. 28.
Editor-in-Chief
Horticulturea
My coauthors and I would like to submit the new version of a revised manuscript after peer-review entitled “Optimization of Cultivation Type and Temperature for Production of Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) Sprouts in a Plant Factory” after considering and improving over the reviewers’ comments.
We are grateful for your and reviewers’ comments and suggestions. After getting reviewers’ comments on our manuscript, we revised it with a response message (yellow marked in the manuscript) following the comments and suggestions.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Ki-Ho Son, Ph.D.
Associated Professor,
Vegetable Science and Protected Horticulture Lab.
Department of Horticultural Science
Gyeongsang National University
33 Dongjin-ro, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52725, Korea
Tel +82-55-772-3253
Mobile +82-10-6698-9998
Fax +82-55-772-3257
Reviewer 3
The authors aimed to investigate the effects of culture systems and temperature conditions on the growth and saponin accumulation of balloon flower sprouts in controlled environment systems. The significance test for Fig. 3 need to be check carefully.
=> We carefully checked again and revised it.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
