Abstract

The changes of soil physical and mechanical properties, arising from the traffic of machines in farming operations, have been widely studied, emphasizing the negative effects of soil compaction on crop productivity. The objective was to evaluate the physical properties of an Oxisol under different planting and management systems. A completely randomized design one-way was adopted for the collection of soil samples. The treatments consisted of four systems of planting and management (no tillage, conventional planting, area under pasture and fruit cultivation) with three replications. All samples were obtained at a depth of 0 to 0.15 m. The physical properties of the soil were: bulk density, degree of compaction, liquid limit, plastic limit and total porosity. All physical properties varied statistically (P<0.05) for the different systems of planting and management. The fruit cultivation area has demonstrated in all soil physical attributes a good quality, since over the years the accumulation of organic matter from decomposition of the leaves may have caused this better physical quality of the soil. The conventional planting and the pasture are more susceptible to erosion, principally in the first case where the soil disaggregation caused by this system can enhance the erosion of the soil. As a conclusion, the bulk density and degree of compaction has shown that the no tillage was the planting and management systems with the worst soils’ physical properties.

Key words: Compaction, limits of consistency, degree of compaction, total porosity.