How can rainforests grow on poor soil?

Question

How can rainforests grow on poor soil?

Answer 1

I've heard of this before. Rainforests store their nutrients in the trees and whatnot, not in the soil, like the average forest. If little happens like a fire, to destroy all of the vegetation and give the land new material to work with, most rainforest -which are old- end up with acidic, thick soil. Rainforest soil isn't suitable for agriculture because of the soil. Even some of the trees have shallow roots to compensate for this soil deficit. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

rainforests grow naturally. they are not man-made. Therefore, they will only grow where the soil is suitable for them. so, the soil will not be poor.

But if by chance, rainforests do grow on poor soils, fertilizers will be needed to give them the nutrients needed by the treees to grow.

Answer 3

The rainforest survives by getting it's nutrients from the decomposing organic matter.  This process is called leaching.  Due to the heavy rainfall in rainforests the nutrients in the soil wash away.  This is why the soil quality is so poor. This makes it neccesary for the plants to replace the nutrients from decomposing plant matter.