Response to Various Water Regimes of the Physiological Aspects, Nutritional Water Productivity, and Phytochemical Composition of Bush Tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC.) Grown under a Protected Environment

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

In the manuscript “Response of physiological parameters, nutritional water productivity, and phytochemical composition of bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC.) grown under a protected environment to varying water regimes” by Rumani et al., author investigated the physiological parameters, nutritional yield, nutritional water productivity, and metabolite composition of bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC.) under 100% of crop water requirement (ETa), 30% of ETa, and a control (no irrigation), the research results have great guiding significance for researching the water utilization and plant growth performance of bush tea in areas with low water availability and without limiting nutrients. Despite the numerous merits of this work, however, there are still some issues that need to be explained reasonably, as follows:

 

1.       Line 86-87, “The temperatures ranges from ~ 18/33 °C (day/night) and relative humidity (60-80%)”, please confirm if the temperature parameters are correct, 18/33 °C (day/night) or 18/33 °C (night /day)?

2.       Line 107, the author wrote “Water was supplied using drip irrigation system three times a day (7, 11 and 3 am) which….”, are the three water supply times in the morning? Why choose these three times for water supply treatment?

3.       Line 299-301, “…recorded on bush tea plants which were exposed to the 100% ETa (46) than plants from 30% ETa and the control.”, what does the “(46)” mean, is it the percentage of growth?

4.       Line 311-312, “Thus, the results of the current study concur with the findings by Mabhaudhi et al. [12,38]; Motsa et al. [41].”, which need to be changed to “…findings by Mabhaudhi et al. [12,38] and Motsa et al.”.

5.       Since the third part is “Results and Discussion”, there should be discussion content in each result. 3.3. Elemental composition discussion content needs to be added.

6.       3.4. Nutritional water productivity, in the result description, the full name of mineral elements is used, but in Table 7, abbreviations are useful. It is recommended to use the full name or abbreviations uniformly. If using abbreviations, explanations need to be added in appropriate positions.

7.       The format of Table 8 should be consistent with the previous Tables 1-7. Please modify.

8.       Please check all references and follow the journal's requirements for layout. Especially in references, Latin names need to be italicized.

Author Response

"Please see the attachment".

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

       The topic is very significant, and the experiment design and the analysis of the results are reasonable, then this manuscript read nice.

       However the writting needs modification, and some suggestions has been stated in the remark comments of the reviewer's manuscript. 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

"Please see the attachment."

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Editors and Authors,

 

I read the manuscript entitled “Response of Physiological Parameters, Nutritional Water Productivity, and Phytochemical Composition of Bush Tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC.) Grown under a Protected Environment to Varying Water Regimes”. In the current study the responses of physiological parameters, nutritional water productivity, and phytochemical composition of bush tea grown under a protected environment to varying water regimes. The subject of the article is important and has great relevance for the scientific environment of the study area. Therefore, the manuscript needs some adjustments so that it can then be forwarded to the publication process. The manuscript has the potential for publication in the journal Horticulturae and needs the following adjustments:

 

TITLE

 

- Delete the term “Varying”.

 

ABSTRACT

 

- The first sentence should be about the influence of water regimes on plants.

- Mention the physiological parameters.

- At the end, it is mentioned that this is the first study to determine several bioactive compounds. What compounds are these?

- Keywords: Exclude terms that are repeated in the title.

 

INTRODUCTION

- The word “parameters” is mentioned throughout the text. This can be replaced by “aspects”.

- Insert some hypotheses before the objectives.

- It is not necessary to mention in the objectives that the study was conducted in a protected environment. This information must be present in the M&M section.

 

MATERIAL AND METHODS

- Present climate data in figure form. If possible, daily data during the conduct of the experiment. Was the temperature lower during the day than at night?

- Was the control without irrigation? This left me confused. Was there no irrigation at any time?

- Mention the units of measurement for gas exchange variables.

- Describe how the equipment settings were made for fluorescence measurements. Was it dark-adapted? How was that? To quote.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

 

- Tables with gas exchange results and chlorophyll fluorescence should be added to the manuscript. The result is described in the text and cannot be seen in Tables or Figures.

- The water productivity table should be moved to Material and Methods. It is just a table characterizing the water used in each water regime. See if it is possible to do this.

- Was the PCA performed only for the treatments? And the relationship between the variables? What about the relationship between variables and treatments? I suggest making another graph with this relationship. Add the variables with the vectors together with these treatments. If this is not possible, perform a Pearson correlation with the variables.

- Some variables need to be discussed. The result is described and there is no discussion. To review.

Author Response

"Please see the attachment."

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The authors made the corrections, as per the previous suggestion.

The lines must be removed from the bottom of the figure 1. Leave the background white.

Author Response

"Please see the attachment."

Author Response File: Author Response.docx