Evaluating and selecting suitable compound fertilizers is of great significance in achieving simple and efficient vegetable production.Currently，there are various types of compound fertilizers，and the effects of different compound fertilizers on the growth and quality of vegetables need to be further investigated.In this study，based on the production problems and demands of high soil phosphorus(P)surplus in acidic vegetable land in South China and the high potassium(K)demand of flowering Chinese cabbage，a field experiment on the effects of different compound fertilizer(balanced compound fertilizers of Xin Yangfeng，Agrobase and Yara:YF15-15-15，ICL16-16-16 and YR15-15-15，and corresponding low phosphorus compound fertilizers:YF15-5-25，ICL15-5-25 and YR13-4-25)applications on the growth and quality of flowering Chinese cabbage was carried out in order to screen and evaluate the effects of different compound fertilizer characteristics and applications on the growth，agronomic traits，root structure，soil physicochemical properties，quality，nutrient uptake，and utilization of flowering Chinese cabbage.The results showed that there were significant differences in the dissolution rate，post-dissolution pH，and EC of different compound fertilizers.Compared with the customary fertilization treatment(F)，the fresh yield，biomass and leaf area of flowering Chinese cabbage increased by 2.5%-53.9%，8.8%-60.8% and 19.1%-62.9%，respectively，after application of balanced compound fertilizers(with the ICL16-16-16 treatment having the best effect)，whereas，except for a slight increase in biomass and leaf area of the ICL15-5-25 treatment after the application of the low-phosphorus compound fertilizers，the biomass and leaf area were lower than those of the F treatment.Different compound fertilizers had a significant effect on the root growth of flowering Chinese cabbage.Overall，the low-P compound fertilizer promoted the root growth，but the average diameter of the root system was reduced by 13.9%-30.4% compared with the corresponding balanced compound fertilizers.Compound fertilizer application reduced soil pH overall but increased soil EC value，and soil NO^3--N and NH4+-N content were significantly increased by 30.7%-40.1% and 18.7%-53.2%，respectively，after balanced compound fertilizer application compared with the F treatment；compared with the corresponding balanced compound fertilizer treatment，NO^3--N，NH4+-N，and Olsen-P content were decreased by 13.9%-22.4%，18.6%-30.5% and 17.7%-24.6%，respectively，while available-K content was increased by 50.0%-107.3%.Compared with the F treatment，the nitrogen(N)accumulation of ICL16-16-16 and YR15-15-15 was significantly increased by 41.5% and 27.2%，while in the YF15-5-25 and YR13-4-25 treatments，it was significantly decreased by 12.6% and 17.9%，respectively.The P accumulation of flowering Chinese cabbage after balanced compound fertilizer application was increased by 14.7%-97.3% compared with the F treatment，while the P accumulation of low-P compound fertilizer decreased significantly or did not differ significantly from that of the F treatment.The K accumulation of flowering Chinese cabbage was increased by 34.3%-110.1% after the application of compound fertilizer compared with that of the F treatment.Compared with F treatment，the recovery efficiency of N fertilizer(NUE)after application of balanced compound fertilizer was significantly increased by 16.3%-51.0%，while the recovery efficiency of P fertilizer(PUE)was decreased by 15.9%-52.5%；the NUE after application of low-P compound fertilizer was not significantly different from that of F treatment，while the PUE was increased by 6.9%-38.0%，and the recovery efficiency of K fertilizer was significantly decreased by 22.4%-32.5%.Compared with the F treatment，the balanced compound fertilizer mainly increased the content of soluble protein and soluble sugar in the flowering Chinese cabbage，while the Vc and soluble protein content increased significantly，but the content of soluble sugar decreased after the low-P compound fertilizer application.Overall，balanced compound fertilizer had a better promoting effect on the growth of flowering Chinese cabbage than low-P compound fertilizer，with ICL16-16-16 showing the best comprehensive performance and ICL15-5-25 having better comprehensive performance among low-P compound fertilizers.Therefore，the soil nutrient status and the characteristics of the nutrient demand should be considered in the choice of compound fertilizer to promote the growth of flowering Chinese cabbage and achieve light，simple，efficient，and high-quality production.