Abstract: The effect of application mode of N, P and K fertilizers on nutrient content of plants and soils as well as yield of summer maize are investigated under field growth condition. Among three N treatments, including regular N application (basal plus topdressing at ear formation), improved regular N application (basal plus topdressing at ear formation and silking) and controlled N application together with two levels of P and K (i.e., P2O5 105-K2O 120 kg/hm2 and P2O5 157.5-K2O 180 kg/hm2), the biomass, contents and accumulative amounts of N, P and K of plants were higher in regular N application treatment than that of controlled urea application treatment before ear formation. At maturity, spike numbers, 1000 grain weights and yields of controlled urea treatment were higher than that of improved regular N treatment, and then was regular N treatment. Under the same N treatments, the increasing application of P and K fertilizer increased the contents and accumulative amounts of P and K as well as N contents and N accumulative amounts. Soil available contents of N and P decreased along with the growth, soil available K contents exhibited a“V”pattern; soil available nutrient contents and plant nutrient contents displayed converse patterns, and the contents of controlled urea treatment was lower than that of improved regular N treatment in the late growth stage, and then was that of regular N treatment. Compared with CK, grain production capacities of NPK reduced in all treatments, and the grain production capacities of unit nutrient was the highest in regular N treatments, followed by that of improved regular N treatments and controlled urea treatments. The nutrient use efficiency was the highest in controlled urea treatment, followed by that of improved regular N treatment and regular N treatment. These results indicate that controlled urea application before planting together with P and K could coordinate the nutrient supply during growth period, improve the absorption, accumulation and matter production in the middle and late periods, which could be used as an effective fertilizer application mode in enhancing nutrient use efficiency, spike traits and yield formation capacity.