Use of Agro-Waste as a Source of Crop Nutrients in Intensive Horticulture System

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The work is well structured complying with the regulations. There is coherence between objectives, hypotheses, and methodology.

The results are of great interest to achieve the objectives that are proposed as strategies to reduce the volume of waste and at the same time be used as organic fertilizers and, from the economic point of view, reduce costs.

It would be convenient to indicate in methodology the period in which each of the three production cycles were fulfilled, which could complement the explanation, among other factors, of the behaviour of the different organic fertilizers and the yields obtained (In results, a mention is made of the TC2 in spring-summer cycle). It is not clear if the treatments are only applied in TC1 or in the three cycles.

On the other hand, the effect of two variables such as pH and EC on yields, microbial activity and on the activity of the different enzymes evaluated is not analysed, it is suggested to add some comments in this regard. Mention is only made of the methodology that is adjusted in the case of the control treatment.

Check references, citations 12 (line 407) and 28 (line 441) are not in the text

Author Response

Response: Dear Reviewer, thank you very much for your help with the revision of the manuscript.

We have corrected and answered your questions. Highlighted edits from all reviewers appear in the manuscript. And here the answer to each suggestion.
The work is well structured complying with the regulations. There is coherence between objectives, hypotheses, and methodology.
The results are of great interest to achieve the objectives that are proposed as strategies to reduce the volume of waste and at the same time be used as organic fertilizers and, from the economic point of view, reduce costs.
It would be convenient to indicate in methodology the period in which each of the three production cycles were fulfilled, which could complement the explanation, among other factors, of the behaviour of the different organic fertilizers and the yields obtained (In results, a mention is made of the TC2 in spring-summer cycle). It is not clear if the treatments are only applied in TC1 or in the three cycles. Ok, done.
On the other hand, the effect of two variables such as pH and EC on yields, microbial activity and on the activity of the different enzymes evaluated is not analysed, it is suggested to add some comments in this regard. Mention is only made of the methodology that is adjusted in the case of the control treatment.

Response: The soil analysis was carried out without any repetitions. Thus, we could not do the statistical analysis. For this reason, we decided to not include in the article the correlation between soil pH and EC and the microbial commnuity
Check references, citations 12 (line 407) and 28 (line 441) are not in the text

Response: ok, done.

Thanks

Reviewer 2 Report

This manuscript (agronomy-1533667) titled Valorisation of vegetal waste in an intensive horticulture system. Effects of organic fertilisers derived from agro-waste during continuous cropping cycles. is well written and the findings are sound. The subject of this work is interesting, the methods used in the study are acceptable and the results analysis and discussions are reasonable. But after review of this draft, I suggest that authors to must consider the following points to make it publishable in the Journal: “Agronomy”

• Authors not adequately explain the importance of the article in discipline. In the introduction, the authors should emphasize: What is missing? Why this study is new and novel.
• Materials and Methods lines 91-92: Include missing information on test methods used for soil chemical and physical parameters and lines 151-152 for enzymes determination for readers so they do not need to chase down other papers, also mention the experimental soil’s texture in table 1
• Line 115: Replace “dialy percentage” with “daily percentage”
• N-NO3- in whole manuscript need to be corrected as N-NO^3-
• Figure 1: add error bars in the line graphs
• Lines 308-313 the sentence is confusing, rewrite it
• Improve the English in abstract
• There are some spaces and grammatical errors in the whole manuscript, which needs to be corrected

Author Response

Response: Dear Reviewer, thank you very much for your help with the revision of the manuscript.
We have corrected and answered your questions. Highlighted edits from all reviewers appear in the manuscript. And here the answer to each suggestion.

 

This manuscript (agronomy-1533667) titled Valorisation of vegetal waste in an intensive horticulture system. Effects of organic fertilisers derived from agro-waste during continuous cropping cycles. is well written and the findings are sound. The subject of this work is interesting, the methods used in the study are acceptable and the results analysis and discussions are reasonable. But after review of this draft, I suggest that authors to must consider the following points to make it publishable in the Journal: “Agronomy”
Authors not adequately explain the importance of the article in discipline. In the introduction, the authors should emphasize: What is missing? Why this study is new and novel. 
Response: Ok, we have reorganized the introduction, explaining why is important to study the microbial community and activity while changing fertilization management. 
Materials and Methods lines 91-92: Include missing information on test methods used for soil chemical and physical parameters – 
Response: – we have removed tables of proprieties of amendments and the table of soil’s proprieties, as they were equal to tables published in a previous article-  and lines 151-152 for enzymes determination for readers so they do not need to chase down other papers ok, -  also mention the experimental soil’s texture in table 1 

Line 115: Replace “dialy percentage” with “daily percentage” 
Response:  ok
N-NO3- in whole manuscript need to be corrected as N-NO3-  
Response: ok
Figure 1: add error bars in the line graphs.
Response: If we do this the figure seems very confused. For this we put the letters inside the tables
Lines 308-313 the sentence is confusing, rewrite it 
Response: ok
Improve the English in abstrac 
Response: ok
There are some spaces and grammatical errors in the whole manuscript, which needs to be corrected 
Response: ok

Thanks

Reviewer 3 Report

Suggestions for Authors

The reviewed work “Valorisation of vegetal waste in an intensive horticulture system. Effects of organic fertilisers derived from agro-waste during continuous cropping cycles” presents interesting research. However I have some suggestions.

Line 432-433 and line  434-435 References refer to a large amount of scientific literature, but 24 and 25 references are old, I recommend using more recent ones.

Response:

 

You have obtained interesting research results, but it would be very interesting to know how the crop yields change, the amount of nutrients in the soil and other indicators when growing plants for a longer period of time (for example 3 years or more). The quality of the harvested crop is also a very important indicator. Why you don’t evaluated this?

Response:

Author Response

Response: Dear Reviewer, thank you very much for your help with the revision of the manuscript.
We have corrected and answered your questions. Highlighted edits from all reviewers appear in the manuscript. And here the answer to each suggestion.

The reviewed work “Valorisation of vegetal waste in an intensive horticulture system. Effects of organic fertilisers derived from agro-waste during continuous cropping cycles” presents interesting research. However I have some suggestions.
Line 432-433 and line  434-435 References refer to a large amount of scientific literature, but 24 and 25 references are old, I recommend using more recent ones. 
Response: Ok, we have changed reference number 24. Regarding the ref number 25, we keep it since the methodology that we used is described in that article.
 
You have obtained interesting research results, but it would be very interesting to know how the crop yields change, the amount of nutrients in the soil and other indicators when growing plants for a longer period of time (for example 3 years or more). The quality of the harvested crop is also a very important indicator. Why you don’t evaluated this? 
Response: yes, you are right. We have done this in the last corp cycle (6th). We have published these results in other article mentioned.
    Thanks

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript is generally well written. The results are described in detail and discussed.

Why is the title composed of two sentences? Can it be simplified?

The originality / novelty of the research should be clearly indicated.

line 207: Four plants per one replicate and four replicates is a small number. Why was this experimental design chosen?

line 534: It has been written "fertiliserfertilisers".

The authors should discuss the directions for future research in detail.

Author Response

Dear Review
Thank you very much for your work reviewing the manuscript and allowing me to continue with the process.
The manuscript is generally well written. The results are described in detail and discussed.
Why is the title composed of two sentences? Can it be simplified? 
Response: ok
The originality / novelty of the research should be clearly indicated. 
Response: Ok, we try to explain batter its importance/novelty
line 207: Four plants per one replicate and four replicates is a small number. Why was this experimental design chosen? 
Response: This experiment design was chosen considering the dimension of the lysimeters 
line 534: It has been written "fertiliserfertilisers". 
Response: Ok, thanks
The authors should discuss the directions for future research in detail. 
Response: ok