The influence of cover crops and their management on the maintenance or improvement of soil physical quality in areas under organic production should be investigated. This study aimed to determine the influence of the cover crops sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp), velvet bean (Mucuna aterrima), sorghum (Sorgum technicum), and fallow on physical properties of soil under organic cultivation of common bean and corn, in no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) systems. The study was conducted in Santo Antônio de Goiás-GO, on an Oxisol, in a randomized block design, with four replications. In November 2003 four experiments were installed, two of them under NT and the other two in CT. In each management system, one experiment was carried out with common bean and another with corn. Samples were taken from the layers 0.00-0.10 and 0.10-0.20 m in November 2007, from the plots and from a neighboring native forest, to determine soil organic matter (SOM) and physical properties. The use of this soil for agricultural production, regardless of the tillage system, reduced the SOM content and affected the physical properties, increased bulk density (BD) and soil penetration resistance (PR) and decreased macroporosity (Mp), soil porosity (SP), and the weighted mean diameter of aggregates (WMDA). However, BD and Mp did not reach the critical values indicated in the literature as limiting for crop growth. The soil tillage systems diverged in relation to WMDA and PR. The soil physical properties were favorably affected by SOM. The S index was correlated to the soil physical properties and to SOM and seems to be an adequate indicator of soil physical quality.
Phaseolus vulgaris L; Zea mays; bulk density; soil porosity; S index
