v Summarizing the experiment
v Assessment of the paper
v Comments
v Recommendations
Summarizing the experiment
The paper made by Chellamutha et al aims to investigate the allelopathic impacts of Prosopis juliflora on selected field crops. Seed germination and dry matter production were studied in four selected test plants under allelopathic influence of Prosopis juliflora as they placed in soil treated with facets of selected test crops.
The study conducted two pot culture experiments during (December 1993, January and February 1994). The study site used in the two experiments is located at Tamil Nadu Agriculture, India. The first experiment used sorghum, sunflower, blackgram and P. juliflora. It was conducted for a month during last month of the year 1993. Two types of soil were collected, one from around livestock of Prosopis juliflora and another from fallow field. Different extracts of Prosopis juliflora were prepared. P. juliflora extracts litters were added to the top fallow field. The different extracts of P. juliflora were added after sowing the test plants. The P. juliflora extracts were add per pot only once immediately after sowing. Each pot of the selected test crops was treated with extracts of P. juliflora such as leaves, leaf powder, and root extracts. Test crops were irrigated daily by sprinkler. Progress on seed germination is recorded on the tenth day of the sowing. The dry matter production per plant was estimated. Phenolic content of P. juliflora parts, such as dry bark, fresh roots, dry leaves and dry stem was estimated.
The second experiment, unlike the first where the soil is taken from proximity of P. juliflora, took clay soil as its topsoil. Furthermore, dry leaf litter of P. juliflora was incorporated in the soil. The pots filled with soil alone served as control. Seeds of the test crops were sown at the time of leaf incorporation. One hundred seeds of each of test crops were sown in each pot. The P. juliflora seeds were sown. The water was sprinkled daily during first two month of the year 1994.The data on germination and dry matter production were analyzed statistically in completely randomized design.
The experiment that sowing of blackgram and P. juliflora at 1 WALI and sowing sorghum at 2 WALI are the suitable agronomic management strategies against allelopathic effect of P. juliflora leaf litters.
Assessment of the Paper
Generally, the paper is well organized in the sense that the all aspects of a scientific paper such as the introduction, materials and methods, results section and discussion as well. The title is specific and clear in conveying the fundamental thrust of the paper. It describes the content of paper well. The layout of the author’s names in capital letters is a boost in recognizing those who made the experiments regarding the said plants. The names were clear and also the addresses were found. Similarly, the abstract efficiently introduces the reader with a great ease in determining the findings and position of the study regarding the experiments that they have conducted. The abstract, although slightly difficult to read considering the font size used, provided the principle objectives, scope of investigation, summarize the results, and state principal conclusion without any delineation on the information from the study. The succeeding part, which is the introduction, provided the readers with the scarce literature related to the study of Allelopathic influences of Prosopis judiflora right after it indicated the ground rules for the progress of the study. This part of the article presented what the researcher intended to accomplish and how these objectives could be realized. In the last the last paragraph of the introduction they said the aim of this experiment. The materials and methods section was good, it is not that long. The materials and methods portion of the study was structured in such a way that the procedure of the two experiments was individually discussed. Moreover, all details were described clearly. Physical quantities and units were written clearly. Nevertheless, the study lacks the proper presentation of the statistical treatment of the results of the study. The results were presented in tables. Overall, the results were good because it set all what they got in clear way. The first table included a presentation of the allelopahic effects on the germination and dry matter production of the test crops. In this table, the data presents relationship of the composition of the soil with the germination and dry matter of the test crops. The soil samples include those with pure topsoil, pure subsoil, topsoil with Prosopis leaf litter, Prosopis leaf extract, and Prosopis leaf powder extract, and Prosopis root extract. All those soil samples with any for of Prosopis included have been tested using various percentages on the soil. The second table discusses the phenolic content in different plant parts of prosopis juliflora. The table basically informs the reader on the mean phonelic content of the plant tissues of the test crops. The last table is the effect of different times of sowing to mitigate the adverse influence of allelopathy of Prosopis juliflora leaf litter on the germination and dry matter of test crops. The table fundamentally seeks the effect of the time factor on the effects of the Prosopis on the germination of the test crops. The variables of this table include the time of sowing during the leaf incorporation and the results a week after the leaf incorporation. It also indicated the percentage of inhibition, stimulation and over control of the test crops in the germination period. In discussion section the authors tried to discuss the results that they got and also tried to set some reasons of some results. They also tried to describe the relation with previous results from other literatures. References were listed in the alphabetical order and were indicated by numbers.
Comments
(Title)
Allelopathic influence of Prosopis juliflora (Swartz) DC. on field crops
The title consists of 10 words which describe the paper well but it consists of unnecessary words. (Swartz) DC is a common name of Prosopis juliflora. It is better to use scientific name of the crop or common name. Prosopis juliflora, sorghum, blackgram and sunflower are field plants. So it is unnecessary to use the word “Field”. I suggest another title which could be shorter
“Allelopathic influence of Prosopis juliflora on crops”
Recommendation
I think this paper is good and it could be published if the authors could add more information about weather conditions and fertilization rate. Moreover, trying to use same planting date or a least presenting problems or why they change the planting date for different seasons. The same thing for fungicide application date and number of harvests. Clear mistake in the results that I mention before. Choosing one way to present the results, either by figures or table. Discussing the results more. Dropping the paragraph, which talk about health hazard and trying to concentrate in discussion of the results and effect of weather conditions.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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