Effect of the Climatic Conditions in Central Europe on the Growth and Yield of Cornelian Cherry Cultivars

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1. Line 174: In 2020, average temperature below 174 0°C occurred on days 15, 22-24, and 30-31. Name of station. That doesn't belong in the table and should be in a new paragraph below the table and Name of station should be deleted

Information on the occurrence of frosts during flowering has been included in a separate paragraph. The name of the meteorological data recording station has been specified.

2. Table 3 and table 4: align the letters in the text (Mean temperature °C differs)

The headings in the tables mentioned have been unified.

3. Line 280 and 334: align the size of letters as well as the alignments

The manuscript has been reread multiple times for editorial compatibility. We unified the capitalization and alignment.

4. Line 414: Cornelian cherry is suitable for cultivation in ecological conditions. This sentence should be change: Cornelian cherry is suitable for cultivation in ecological conditions of Central Europe or what?

We corrected it as suggested.

5. Line 594: Revise the Reference section format

The reference list has been carefully read in terms of punctuation and numbering, as 2 new items have been added.

6. The conclusion section should be revised, given clear and objective information related to the topic of this research. I think that the results of this work are not sufficient to make adequate conclusions about the utility value of the analyzed Cornelian cherry cultivars.

The conclusions have been refined to the scope of research in the experiment. We removed the part about the possibility of using individual cultivars, moving it to the appropriate places in the discussion

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1. English needs to be addressed properly, some grammatical and spelling mistakes are observed.

The text was read many times and any errors noticed were corrected

2. I would recommend adding the graph for rainfall, precipitation, humidity, and wind as well in the materials section. Wind and humidity also have an impact related to climate change. The author can add all four weather details in one graph.

We do not have access to data on wind and humidity, which is important for some fruit species. However, we have drawn up additional graphs (Figures: 2 and 3) showing the extremely important comparison of precipitation and air temperature for Cornelian cherry, which affect drought periods.

3. The regressions and correlations need more detail in the discussion section.

The description of regression and correlation in the discussion has been extended

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1.The research significance of the article is not well reflected. It is recommended to increase the scientific and engineering significance of the research in the article

We have specified the aim of the experiment to increase the scientific and engineering significance of the research in our article.

2. The introduction is too long and does not fit the topic of the paper, and does not condense the scientific question well. Please use concise language to summarize the research background of the article, the current research status at home and abroad, and the problem to be solved in this paper.

In order to limit the spread of the text, in the introduction, we removed some information on the morphology of the Cornelian cherry. However, We believe that the remaining information is necessary to demonstrate the importance of increasing the cultivation of this still not very popular plant in commercial cultivation.

3.  The innovation of the manuscript is average, and it does not reflect the unique innovation with other research scholars. It is recommended to add an innovative description of the manuscript.

We have clarified the aim of the study and we are sure that now the whole last paragraph captures its innovation.

4. The manuscript lacks explanations for the selection of 11 different Cornelian cherry trees, please provide additional explanations. The manuscript lacks an explanation of the “BBCH scale”. The description of the temperature acquisition in the manuscript is too simple, and the supplementary description is by which method the data was acquired.

The cultivars selected for the experiment are important in our country and available in nurseries;

In the Material and Methods we explained what the BBCH scale means and in which individual phases of temperature and precipitation were recorded.

 5. Other conditions such as soil fertility, soil PH value, altitude, fruit tree lifespan, management mode, etc. will all affect the yield of dogwood and other indicators. How does the author consider the above factors?

In the material and methods, we supplemented the information on the type of soil, its fertility and pH.

6. Please increase the cut-off time in the multi-year average temperature in Table 1 from 2012 to 2019, so as to increase the accuracy and timeliness of data comparison.

To update, we added data from 2012 to 2019 and recalculated the multi-year average (1951-2019).

 7. Please check the photo time for accuracy. For example, pictures 2 (BBCH99) and 3 (BBCH99) were definitely taken in December? It is recommended that the figures in the text be drawn by professional drawing software. For example, Figure 7, Figure 8 and Figure 9.

The term given for the photographs is appropriate;

Mentioned drawings are made in the professional Microsoft Word program, in the current version: Office 365 subscription:  1903 (16.0.11425.20228).

 8. Please summarize the lengthy conclusion concisely, and the conclusion should be obtained from the experiment.

The conclusions have been refined to the scope of research in the experiment. We removed the part about the possibility of using individual cultivars, moving it to the appropriate places in the discussion.

Please explain the mechanism of environmental factors affecting the fruit length, fruit diameter and yield of Cornelian cherry in the text. Otherwise, whether it can be considered that the conclusions obtained are caused by changes in other factors.

This experiment focused on the effects of climatic conditions on individual phenophases, including fruit ripening. As suggested, I added what was the mechanism of climatic conditions for yielding.

There are many problems in the format of the manuscript, please make corrections. Such as line 175, line 337, etc.

The work has been read many times and any noticeable editorial flaws have been corrected.

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English language and style are fine/minor spell check required

The text was translated by a company that translates this type of scientific work. Please, indicate what should be corrected to demand a correction by the company.

The author should indicate the specific position of the modification in the revised manuscript. This makes it easier for reviewers to check. For instance, revised portion are added in the revised manuscript and made in red, shown in Line xx.

For the first time, I’ve used the “Track

Changes” for MS Word, such that any changes could be easily viewed by the editors and reviewers.

Now, I marked the yellow background in the text what I changed and give the number of the line.

Question 1 and Question8 are not well solved. It is recommended to make further modification.

The data presented in this manuscript is unique in that it relates to the cultivation of a little-known plant. The selected cultivars are not random seedlings, but cultivars with constant characteristics (Line 116), passed on to scion, thanks to the best method for Cornelian cherry nursery, which is enrichment by budding. In addition, we have defined a method of increasing the size of Cornelian cherry fruit and shoots, which has not yet been described in the literature available to us. (Line: 119-122). This information is essential for planning treatments such as irrigation and others, to optimize growth under stress conditions.

The current conclusions relate only to the research carried out in the experiment and relate to all aspects examined.

It is recommended that the figures ( 2 3 9 10 11) in the revised manuscript should be beautified. For instance, using software Origin, Sigmaplot et al.

Unfortunately, my department does not have access to the Origin or Sigmaplot programs. I was using the latest software that I have a license for Office 365 subscription:  1903 (16.0.11425.20228)., which is consistent with the editorial. So I refined the indicated charts (fig. 2,3,9,10, and 11) in the program available to me so that they are more beautiful. Changes in the Line: 201, 203, 396, 408 and 426