Introduction. In the French West Indies, farmers generally consider thatperiodical soil tillage is necessary to increase soil porosity and maintain high yield.However, in the non-tilled perennial banana plantations of the highlands, the soilexhibits better physical and biological properties than in the conventional bananaplantations. To determine if tillage before banana planting is necessary for proper bananacrop functioning and to assess the effect of tillage on soil quality, banana plantingafter conventional tillage was compared with no-till banana planting on crop residue mulchon an experimental plot. Materials and methods. Soil quality was assessedthrough indicators such as porosity, organic status, microbial biomass and structure ofnematode communities. Crop functioning was assessed through plant growth, rootdistribution, and soil water and nitrogen availability. Results. We foundthat tillage reduced soil microbial biomass and the number of nematode functional guilds.Tillage had only a short-term effect on soil porosity and did not allow deeper extensionof the root system. Although soil organic nitrogen mineralization was higher withconventional tillage, banana nitrogen nutrition was not better, probably because the highnitrogen fertilization offset the variations in availability of nitrogen from organicorigin. We found that banana growth was better with no-till treatment. This could beexplained by less drying out of soil due to the crop residue mulch left on the soilsurface with no-till treatment. Conclusion. Relative to conventional tillage,no-till banana planting improved soil quality and crop performance.