Development of an Automatic Irrigation Method Using an Image-Based Irrigation System for High-Quality Tomato Production
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
- The introduction does not provide sufficient background. The originality of the research is not sufficiently indicated on the background of the available literature. It has been written: "The objective of the present study was to develop an automatic irrigation method using the image-based irrigation system for high-quality tomato production [1]". The authors cited a publication that refers to such a system. Is this system novelty of the current research or was it developed earlier?
- line 86: Why was only one cultivar examined? The results may depend on the cultivar. It would be better to examine more cultivars.
- line 104: Why were only 12 plants used in each treatment?
- Statistical analysis should be described in more detail.- line 221: Why "with the exception of accumulated fruit yield, accumulated number of harvested fruits, and fruit weight"?
- Have the one-way ANOVA assumptions been checked? What tests have been used?
- The results for the fruit quality are based mainly on the Brix and acidity values.
The quality of the fruit could also be expressed using other parameters. Why did the authors not measure the additional quality properties of the fruit?
- The conclusions should be more supported by the results?
Author Response
"Please see the attachment."
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Interesting paper, methods well-described and easy to follow. Some comments from my side (number indicates line number):
Paragraph 59-64 seems like a result to me. You are presenting what your System is capable of in a conclusive way, anticipating results are presented afterwards.
60: reference to “our research group” is quite unusual in research papers.
72: Why is there a reference in the sentence where you are stating your objective?
90: please provide also the CO2 concentration in ppm (more standard and easier to read).
92: please provide the macro-properties of this nutrient solution
106: how was this irrigation rate calculated to be sufficient?
121: how was this 14% calculated?
Figure 4: Y axis label is partially hidden
Table 1: Please clarify what the total irrigation amount refers to: is it per plant, per experiment?
350-363: Why is this paragraph in italics?
387: missing year for this reference. Same happens throughout the manuscript. Please check how this journal deals with this.
390: check journal format because sometimes your state the reference and also its cross-reference (Pires et al (19)).
Conclusions can be more extensive and supported with quantitative results. Right now they just show a brief and general summary of the main result.
English language is sound, but there are some long sentences that could be split to increase the smoothness of the paper.
Author Response
"Please see the attachment."
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript has been improved. I recommend accepting the present form of the manuscript.
