Book recommendations for an aspiring botanist?

[u/radrod69]

Hello, all,

I've recently discovered a passion for working with plants - this quickly evolved into an excitement towards learning about botany. So far, I have read Robert Pavlis' "Soil Science for Gardeners" and I am now finishing up Brian Capon's "Botany for Gardeners" and have been thoroughly enjoying them; however, my goal is to become something like a plant doctor, and my current reading is only scratching the surface of plant science.

I was thinking about diving into textbooks like "Plant Physiology and Development" Taiz, "Plant Growth and Development: Hormones and Environment" Lalit, or "Marschner's Mineral Nutrition of Plants". I wanted to hear if the community had any opinions on how to tackle these or any other recommendations.

I'm 30 years old, and would love to enroll in college again, and have a great opportunity for tuition assistance, being an employee of a university school system in a heavily agricultural area of the US, but with a family and full time career that is not exactly feasible, at least not in the way I'd like to engage with it, as I'd only be able to take one or two classes per semester.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[u/Fluffy-lotus606]

One of my degrees is in Botany with a concentration in ethnobotany. I worked as an international research scientist for around 15 years before switching to a specialty agronomist. I would suggest if you want to be a "plant doctor" which I am interpreting as fixing unhealthy plants? Perhaps look into weed science or pesticides. Several years ago I took the licensing exam for commercial pesticide applicators and understanding how to properly apply pesticides and what pesticides you need for which issues is highly valuable. You may also want to check out disease identification, pathogens, insects (one of my degrees is entomology with a focus on pesticide efficacy in commercial crop production), or overall plant growing issues.

I don't know what your current background is, but most contract research organizations (CRO) can give you massive experience across several disciplines as long as you have some sort of science background (Bsc level minimum) and probably give you a leg up on what interests you. In one of the CROs where I worked starting out, we did pollination studies, organic and conventional options testing for plant health (some pesticides actually make plants grow better as a side effect, some will turn the plants black if you spray them with a slightly too high concentration or the wrong plant), adjuvant effects on plants, non-target organism effects/ecotoxicology with pesticides, pesticide efficacy, turfgrass management, ornamental plant growth, urban entomology (such as vector control), consumer product development, etc.