QUALIDADE FÍSICA DO SOLO EM POMARES DE BANANEIRA SOB INFLUÊNCIAS DO USO E DE INTERVENÇÃO MECÂNICA

The aim was to evaluate the attributes indicative of the physical quality of soils cultivated with banana trees and subjected to mechanical management through subsoiling. The evaluations were carried out in two different orchards, characterized by the fact that they had been subsoiled for five years (area considered unsubsoiled) and seven months (area considered subsoiled). The values of mechanical resistance to root penetration were obtained using a penetrometer. The following attributes were determined from the samples collected: density, solid density, total porosity and relative density, using the ratio between soil density and maximum soil density, obtained using the Proctor test. It was found that subsoiling was able to reduce the average values of soil density and relative density by approximately 9.83% and 15.84%, respectively, resulting in increases in total soil porosity of around 24.84%. Mechanical resistance to root penetration increased with depth, regardless of the mechanical management used. However, subsoiling resulted in significant reductions in this variable from a depth of 0.125m. It can therefore be concluded that subsoiling was effective in improving the physical quality of the soils evaluated.