Abstract: Pot trails were conducted from 2003 to 2005 to study the effects of slow/controlled release fertilizers on the growth and nutrient use efficiency of pepper. The results indicated that in comparison with conventional splitting fertilization (T₁), basal application of polymercoated controlled release fertilizer (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 effect was observed on the dissoluble sugar concentration in fruit. NH₄MgPO₄coated controlled release fertilizer (T₃) increased the dissoluble sugar concentration by 5.67%, but had less effect on single fruit mass and vitamin C concentration. 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 increased the dissoluble sugar concentration in fruit, enhanced the root activity, but had less effect on the yield. All test slow/controlled release fertilizers increased 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 efficiency.

Key words: proline, cadmium stress, heavy metal, wheat.