Research on the effect of forecrop and diversified tillage on soil properties in maize agrotechnics was carried out in the years 2010-2013 at the Agricultural Production Farm in Kowróz (53°07′ N; 18°34′ E), Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. On light clay soil, two-factor field experiment was carried out. First factor was the forecrop: winter wheat, spring barley, and maize, and the second factor was the tillage method: plough tillage, deep ploughless tillage, and shallow ploughless tillage. Directly before sowing and at the stage of intensive maize growth (BBCH 32-37), physical properties of the soil were determined, namely compaction, bulk density, moisture, and respiration. After forecrop harvest, pH_KCl and the content of the assimilable forms of macroelements in the soil were evaluated, and after maize harvest also mineral nitrogen content. It was found that the forecrop affected soil compaction but only before successive crop sowing, as well as soil respiration. Tillage method significantly affected, however, its physical properties. On the plot after winter wheat, soil of ploughless tillage was less firm than after spring barley and maize, whereas maize as forecrop increased, regardless of the tillage method, CO₂ emission from the soil. Substitution of plough tillage with shallow ploughless treatments, regardless of the forecrop, caused an increase in compaction, bulk density, moisture, and mineral nitrogen after the successive crop harvest, and on the plot after maize also in soil respiration. On the other hand, forecrop and tillage method had no significant effect on the contents of the assimilable forms of macroelements in the soil, in spite of its small increase as a result of ploughless tillage on the plot after maize.

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