Abstract:Pot trails were conducted from 2003 to 2005 to study the effects of sl ow/controlled release fertilizers on the growth and nutrient use efficiency of p epper. The results indicated that in comparison with conventional splitting fert ilization (T1), basal application of polymercoated controlled release fertil izer (T2) enhanced the single fruit mass and vitamin C concentration, improved the root activity, and increased the fruit yield by 8.4%, but no significant e ffect was observed on the dissoluble sugar concentration in fruit. NH4MgPO4 coated controlled release fertilizer (T3) increased the dissoluble sugar con centration by 5.67%, but had less effect on single fruit mass and vitamin C con centration. Under the application of T3, the root system had a vigorous growth at early stages but became infirm at later stages, resulting in a lower yield. Comparing with T1, the application of 3 slow release fertilizers incr eased the dissoluble sugar concentration in fruit, enhanced the root activity, b ut had less effect on the yield. All test slow/controlled release fertilizers in creased the use efficiency of N, P, and K significantly, with an exception for T2 which increased the use efficiency of N and K but decreased that of P. It was demonstrated that an appropriate application of slow/controlled release fertilizers could enhance pepper’s root activity and improve nutrient use effic iency.