A seedling culture trial was conducted in plug to study the effects of common compound fertilizer and different types and amounts of controlled-release fertilizers on growth and physiological characteristics of tobacco seedlings.The results indicated that the seedling quality was the best after treated with the 3-month controlled-release fertilizer under the same fertilizer amount and the equal rate of N,P and K.When the controlled-release fertilizer amount reduced to 2 /3,the growth quantity,root activity,chlorophyll content,photosynthetic rate and NR activity were obviously better than those treated with the common compound fertilizer.The application of controlled-release fertilizer could not only improve the fertilizer use efficiency,but also save the labor and time when used only as the base fertilizer.