Effects of Plant Covers and Mulching on the Biometric Parameters, Yield and Nutritional Value of Tomatillos (Physalis ixocarpa Brot. Ex Hornem.)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

General comments: Paper presents data on work done on tomatillos, a relatively new crop in Poland. It compares three cultivars that seem to have good prospects in north-eastern Poland. The paper reports the applied agronomic principles for producing the compared cultivars and their yield characteristics relative to marketability and acceptance in the Polish market. The work is commendable and has sufficient scientific merit for consideration for publication in Agronomy journal. The areas of weakness include: 1. Paper is extremely verbose, and must be reduced in length. 2. Some data presented are unnecessary because they showed no significant treatment effect. Such data could simply be expressed in a single sentence giving the mean of the data and stating that the treatments applied did not give any significant difference. See specific comments below:

Title: Delete 'Soil' ---- any time mulching is mentioned in Agricultural systems, it is generally understood that mulching refers to covering the soil surface.

Abstract: Too long! I suggest that the first four sentences be reduced to two to read: "Tomatillos are widely cultivated and consumed around the world for their high nutritional and health values. However, they are yet to be adopted  on a large scale in Poland." The aim of this study ------. The rest of the information provided in the first four sentences belong to the Introduction and Materials and Method sections of the paper

Spell out PE and PP at the first mention of these acronyms --- I could not find what these acronyms mean throughout the paper.

Remember to change present tense to past tense in the Abstract. "Is" should be changed to "was" and "are" to "were", etc. 

Introduction: Good Introduction. Spell out what PE and PP mean at the first mention. Also confirm that all other acronyms are spelt out at the first mention.

Materials and Methods: 

1.What does "The soils are typical of the young glacial landscape" mean? What are the characteristics of this soil? Texture, pH, Organic matter, etc.

2. Pay attention to the use of singular noun followed by plural verb or vice-versa.  For example "The first experimental factor were three plant cultivar" should be "The first experimental factor was" --- plant cultivar, comprising three tomatillo cultivars

3. Table 1: The use of mg dm-3 in front of the Table title is wrong. This unit refers only to the mineral elements N-NO3, P, K, Ca, Mg, and not to pH or salt concentration, each of which has its own different unit. Insert mg dm-3 under the mineral elements only. 

4. Table 2: Title is incomplete --- "Agronomic activities and observations" in tomatillo cultivation is preferred to "Agronomic treatments" Column 1 in Table 2, reflects more than Agronomic treatments.

5. Table 3: See comments for Table 1

6. Tables 4, 5 and 6 & Figure 2: I am not sure these Tables and Figure 2 are necessary for this paper. One or two sentences may be used to describe each of them as text.

Results: 

Tables 7 and 8: These are incomplete without providing a footnote to explain what each acronym in column 1 means

Tables 9: Not needed as there is no difference in the means shown . One sentence is enough to express what the Table shows.

Table 10: See comments for Tables 7&8

Figures 3, 4, 5: These can be presented as Tables to maximize space and reduce production cost.

Figure 6: Looks acceptable as it allows one to compare the three tomatillo cultivars more easily.

Figure 7: Present as Table

Table 12: Unnecessary --- no treatment effect

Table 13: See comments for Tables 7&8

Discussion: Reads too long and can be reduced substantially. In many instances, the results were repeated excessively. Authors should revise this section to reduce verbosity.

Conclusion: Excellent!  

Author Response

Thank you for your insightful review. I agree with renzent comments. I consider the comments to the article justified. I am sending the corrected article in the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The structure of the manuscript looks good and well detailed. 

Consider the following to improve the clarity of the work.

1. Include the photographs of the treatments applied.
2. Include the Standard Error values in the tables and also error bars in the graphs.
3. Recheck the reference numbers after 29.

Also find some comments and suggestions for your review in the attached pdf file.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Thank you for your insightful review. I agree with renzent comments. I consider the comments to the article justified. I am sending the corrected article in the attachment. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf