By Burbank being a biologist does that not class him as a scientist? or perhaps ecologist would be better suited..
Plant Breeding Giants: Burbank, the Artist; Vavilov, the Scientist -- Crow 158 (4): 1391 -- Genetics
either way I do not why you NEED to be a scientist to breed, you just need to have an understanding IMO. but what will teach you more? Burbanks book or a plant breeding book ?
Luther Burbank did receive an honorary degree late in life from Tufts in 1905, ScD I think, in Botanical Sciences, but he was a scientist long before this.
I would class him as a scientist, because he possessed a large amount of expert scientific knowledge, and because he utilized the scientific method, in a constant quest to obtain practical scientific knowledge, in order to create superior plants.
Certainly a book or two on breeding might be a good precursor to Burbank, or at least some practical working knowledge of breeding.
His books are more advanced, ie, if you don't already know how to breed, they may not teach you exactly how to breed, but if you already are a breeder, then they provide a huge wealth of information about a specific type of breeding, which would be Burbank's unique style of hybrid breeding.
As the most successful and prolific agricultural breeder in history, don't you think we might have something to gain from his teachings?
I believe his unique style of breeding is particularly relevent to our unique plant, and where we are historically with our plant.
I agree with you Unclepeter, you certainly don't need to be a scientist to breed. Breeding our unique plant is quite easy really, just don't kill the males, and you will get more seeds than you know what to do with. Of course typological breeding is a bit more complex than that, but not much. It certainly does not have to be as complicated as many would make it out to be.
Breeding with the scientific method is quite easy really, it takes a certain amount of diligence, a pen and a notebook, and a reliable way of labelling one's plants. Most indoor growers already have their "labs" all set up and ready to go. If they weren't able to maintain certain variables constant, they would never be successful at indoor growing in the first place.
