Rhizome Weight and Number of Sectioning per Rhizome Determine Plantlet Growth and Propagation Rate of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni in Cutting Propagation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Introduction.
Line #29&30: ‘Its compounds are with medical functions’. This statement does not sound coherent.
Please mention what part of the plants such as flowers/ leaves/ stems etc. possesses potential medicinal properties and rephrase sentence accordingly. Or what part of plant is economically important. If it is a flower, what is plant phenology? How long does it take for the economically important part of the plant to harvest from planting. Is it commonly grown outdoors or in the controlled condition? Please revisit introduction to support your experimental hypothesis.
Line#33: add that after the in-text citation (2). Also, add the citation# at the end of sentence.
The sentence would be ‘The lack of colchicine biosynthesis in H…recently that eliminates consumers…’
Line#39: It should be Asexual propagation and not sexual propagation.
Line#45 and 46: what is low techniques? It does not make the sense. You can say low input-cost techniques or affordable techniques.
Line#48: add its before low cost
Line#63: Stick to scientific language. I would suggest using overcome these limits instead of conquer.
Avoid starting a new paragraph with any preposition such as To or With.
Methods and Materials
Line#80: ‘Where soils were flattened for placing pots’. What is the purpose of this statement? Is flattened soil for placing pot important?
You can rewrite: Experiments were set up in the middle section of the solar greenhouse.
Missing information:
Line#86: the substrate porosity is. Remove porosities
Line#87: It should be mS not ms. The unit of EC is mS (milliSeiemens/cm)
Line#95: if I understand it correct. Each replicate contains 3 pots where each pot is containing 5 randomly selected rhizomes in the respective category of the weight. If that is correct. You should mention it.
What is logic behind choosing 17, 22, 27, and 32 DAP timeline. If you have any refence for this timeline please mention it. Is it important for flowering/ bud setting/ or harvesting economically important plant organs.
Line#97: ideally you should yield 180 rhizomes
3 levels of rhizome weights x 3 biological replicate x 5 technical replicate in each pot x 4 DAPs= 180
Why there is difference? 180 vs 135
Please add illustrative figures/photographs of Rhizome identifying the Apical bud, sections for Expt 2. It will be easier to understand the experiment.
Line#117: what was the soil temperature? And overall greenhouse temperature maintained throughout experiment? How much is light intensity PAR or joules?
Line#138&139: SLA and SRL calculated based on dry biomass?
How is propagation coefficient calculated/estimated? Write it briefly.
Results
Line#196: are aboveground biomass (table 2) and aboveground dry biomass (line #196) same? Please consistent.
Line#206: Where is data presentation figure/table for effect of section number on aboveground biomass growth rate?
Discussion:
Line#253-255: It seems that sectioning has impact on the propagation coefficient. It is significantly different between sections in LB and SB, which is contradicting what you mentioned in the statement. What is relation between sprouting rate and propagation coefficient? Explaining propagation coefficient is necessary to clarify these results.
Line#258: Is it total root length or fibrous root length? Be consistent for the parameters tested in the experiment.
Line#266: What organs biomass is included in the aboveground biomass other than leaves? If only leaves are measured as aboveground biomass then higher leaf area is obviously the factor for highest biomass, but if other organs such as stems were also included then highest leaf area will be a facto r contributing highest aboveground biomass.
Line#287: absorptive organs? Prefer to use scientific language and clear indicative word.
Use fibrous roots or nutrient absorptive organs; fibrous roots.
Line#288: what do you mean by initiation of growth? did you collect any data on root emergence?
If not, this word is not required to mention.
Line#295 and 321: Which treatment did you see lower bud s sprouting. Include that treatment name in the statement.
Did all bud sprout whether late or early during 9 days of observation in SR, MR, and BR? How do you define delay? Smaller bud may have faced more adversaries to sprout due to mechanical injuries as you mentioned earlier. So, if they have sprouted later may not count as delay. This need to clarify because you are damaging buds while cutting. 2 section cuts had only one-side injury while 3 and 4 had two-side injury. This makes a difference to count sprot delays especially your data collection duration is 3-6-9 DAPs. The wound healing may differ and contribute to all the results.
Line#306: tendency. Not scientific.
Line#353: Use recommended
Author Response
Please find our replies in the attached file.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Review: Rhizome weight and number of sectioning per rhizome determine plantlet growth and propagation rate of Hemerocallis cintrina Baroni in cutting propagation for Agronomy 24/10/22
This manuscript addresses the propagation of Hemerocallis cintrina Baroni, investigating the effect of rhizome weight and number of sections the rhizome is divided into, on growth and nutritional value of the developed plantlet. The aim, design and analysis of the research appear sound, but the manuscript needs further clarity in the ideas being presented. Improving the English used will also help here and I have identified where this needs to be addressed.
I suggest the revised title: Rhizome weight and number of rhizome divisions determine plantlet growth and propagation rate of Hemerocallis cintrina Baroni during propagation.
Abstract:
L13 When you say ‘during cutting’ do you mean ‘during growth’ or ‘during propagation’? Otherwise this does not make any sense.
L15 Define ‘propagation coefficient’ here or leave it out and refer to ‘propagation success’ or something similar that will be understood without having to read the rest of the manuscript.
L23 Stating that N is needed suggest .
you tested this as a factor in your study and you had no control treatment for this intervention. Perhaps suggest instead that this is an area of future work.
Introduction:
L31-34 The English does not make sense.
L45 and elsewhere, replace ‘low techniques’ with ‘low technology’ or ‘low technology techniques’.
L50 State ‘However, this is not efficient and damages parent plants’.
L60-62, 65-71 Review the English for greater clarity.
State the hypothesis in the introduction.
Materials and Methods:
Use ‘completely randomised design’
2.4 State the concentration and ratio of NPK used for the Yamazaki formula.
Were the rhizomes placed on the substrate surface in the pot? If so state this rather than ‘soil’.
2.5 Define sprouting rate. How did you calculate this?
2.6 is missing from this section title.
You have not defined ‘propagation coefficient’ so include the definition in this section. How did you calculate it?
Results:
For the tables and figures, always include a definition of your initialisations (ie BR, MR etc) so that they can be interpreted without having to read the manuscript to find out what they mean. As a new reader of manuscripts, it is my pet hate to have to search for these in the text! Also increase the font sizes of labels and titles of axes.
Table 1: ‘Values are means and bars are s.e.’ is better (and use this for all other tables/figures). Include ‘rhizome weight’ to describe the treatment in EXP 1.
L176 Is 304.13 correct or a mistake? Rather than repeat individual values from the table in the text, summarise the trends in growth. How in general does the growth of BR compare with MR and SR? Rather than repeat the results, use critical thinking here. The second paragraph in 3.2 is OK.
3.3 first paragraph, 3rd and 4th sentences do not make sense in English.
Figure 3. Why is glucose presented separately to the other sugars? Include these data in table 4.
Discussion
It would be more interesting and potentially be more impactful if you provided a few sentences in your discussion, as an introduction, that summarise the key steps of the new protocol that you propose based on your results. Some people will not care about your results, they will just want the summary of the improved protocol.
4.1 first paragraph. Where are the references corroborating or refuting your statements?
4.2 Use a separate paragraph for each idea. 2nd and 3rd sentence: you have restated rather than discuss these results so remove these sentences.
In what context and conditions did the glucose decrease in olive and mangroves? How are these other studies like yours that makes them so relevant?
Conclusions
What is the new protocol?
What can be applied from you research and what is left to do in the future?
Author Response
Please find our replies in the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Please find the attached document for the minor changes
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
