Coffee farmers from the physiographic region known as the Upper San Francisco River, MG, Brazil, have been adopting a new conservation management system with effects on the soil physical quality that require evaluation. The objective of this work was to study the physical quality of a Latosol and a Cambisol in contiguous areas under commercial coffee plantations. The soil of a transition area at the top of the landscape was classified as latossolic dystrophic Tb Haplic Cambisol (Inceptsol) and the soil in the middle third as Red Latosol (Oxisol). In each area, the layers 0-0.05 and 0.75-0.80 m were sampled in the rows and between rows of coffee plants, i.e., a total of four sampling situations per soil. For each situation, 21 undisturbed samples were collected to determine the Least Limiting Water Range (LLWR). The samples were submitted to seven matric potentials, in triplicates. In all situations, the conservation management system maintained a satisfactory physical quality, particularly in the row, in both soil classes studied, since the upper and lower limit of the LLWR were the field capacity and permanent wilting point, respectively. The good soil quality was confirmed by the values of macroporosity, microporosity, total pore volume, soil density, soil penetration resistance, and coffee beans yield above the average of the State of Minas Gerais.
LLWR; coffee cultivation; conservation management; soil physical quality
