Abstract: One-year-old potted Malus hupehensis Rehd. seedlings and ¹⁵N trace technique were used to explore the effects of zeolite on plant growth and the utilization，loss of ¹⁵N-urea. The main results were as follows：The plant height，total wet weight and utilization of ¹⁵N-urea under the low zeolite levels （zeolite 0.6 and 1.2 g · kg-1） were the highest at the early growth stage，and then they were higher with the high zeolite level. At the late stage，the plant height，total wet weight and 15N utilization ratio were the highest for zeolite 2.4 g · kg-1 soil，they were 29.78 cm，29.64 g and 17.91% respectively，which were obviously higher than the control（23.28 cm，22.52 g and 8.81%），but the difference among 4 zeolite treatments were not significant. Ndff values of shoots were higher than roots for all treatments during the whole stages. At the early stage，Ndff values of both shoots and roots were the highest for the low zeolite level treatments（zeolite 0.6 and 1.2 g · kg-1），while at the late stage，the values of zeolite 2.4 g · kg-1 soil were the highest，they were 19.04% and 8.34% respectively，which were obviously higher than the control（16.27% and 5.83%）. The loss of nitrogen decreased by using zeolite，and the more zeolite used，the more effective was the result. As a whole，with the application of zeolite，the growth of plant and the utilization of 15N were significantly increased and the loss of nitrogen decreased，with zeolite 2.4 g · kg-1 soil treatment showing the best.

Key words: Malus hupehensis Rehd., zeolite, ¹⁵N-urea, utilization, loss