Customer Reviews

Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin, Properties, Management

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This is an excellent resource if you're actually interested in the study of soils, agriculture, or amazonia as a whole. No, this is not intended as a how-to guide and if that's all you're looking for, I'd go for a basic gardening book and look to this resource only if you're really interested in the science behind the art. THIS IS AN ACADEMIC PIECE OF LITERATURE! And an excellent piece of it at that. Since I had no background in the study of ecology or of agriculture or soils when I read this I had a hard time following it which is why I had to go back and do a lot of background research before digging into it again. It's really not light reading and clearly wasn't meant to be so, but has enough information in it to satisfy a curious mind!

Since the prior reviewers noted that this is a collection of papers presented at the Terra Pret Symposiums--I might recommend you Google Terra Preta and download the simple Powerpoint that exists online. It was made by a husband and wife who created their own Terra Preta soil in Irvine.

I have an interest in organic gardening and from what I have read about the properties of Amazonian Dark Earths, I believed this would be a very desirable book to own. I was mistaken. It is basically a bunch of scientific papers bundled together and given a cover. It is NOT a how to book. Save your money!