【Objective】Fertilizer, especially chemical fertilizer, contributes significantly to the modern agricultural production. However, in recent years, fertilizer consumption has been increasing exponentially throughout the world and, as a result, causing a series of serious environmental problems. The invention and use of water retaining controlled-release fertilizer (WRCRF) is a promising approach to improving utilization of the water resources and fertilizer nutrients, and pursuing sustainable development of the environment and agriculture. Some fertilizers can also be used to alleviate salt stress of crop plants, such as urea, manure, etc. However, little has been reported on application of WRCRF to plants under salt stress. Recently, a study has been done finding that application of WRCRF (ZL 2012 1 0400570.0) may improve salt tolerance of rice seedlings significantly, which may be attributed to its effects on root growth, content of leaf chlorophyll, photosynthesis and water use efficiency. 【Method】To validate the finding a pot experiment was carried out on effects of WRCRF on leaf length, leaf temperature, and absorption and translocation of N, P, K, Na of rice seedlings under salt stress for 20, 40 and 80 d, separately. Rice seeds were sown in pots filled with natural soil, 2.68 g kg^-1 in salinity. Twenty days later, half of the pots were amended with sodium chloride (NaCl) through irrigation to make the soil up to 4.68 g kg^-1 in salinity. WRCRF was applied at 0, 1, 2 and 4 g kg^-1, separately to the pots. 【Result】Results show as follows. (1) Maximum leaf length of the rice seedlings increased with application rate of WRCRF regardless of salt stress and duration of treatment. WRCRF application decreased leaf surface temperature of the rice plants under salt stress, and the higher the application rate of WRCRF, the higher the effect. However, the plants gradually died of high salinity. (2) The fertilizer increased the contents of N, P and K in the plants under salt stress, but lowered the content of Na. Besides, it increased the translocation factor (N-TF) of N and K from root to shoot in the plants, under low salt stress for 40 d, but lowered that of P and Na, which suggests that application of WRCRF significantly enhanced the plants’ ability of selective adsorption of K and Na (S_K,Na). However, in the plants under low salt stress for 80 d, the application significantly lowered N-TF, P-TF and Na-TF, but raised K-TF and S_K,Na, while in the plants under high salt stress, it did not have much effect on N-TF, but raised P-TF and Na-TF and significantly lowered K-TF and S_K,Na. (3) Na content in the roots was significantly higher than that in the shoot of the plants under salt stress, and Na content in the plants increased very markedly with rising salt stress, especially in the shoot of the rice, indicating that Na-TF increased with rising salt stress. Application of the fertilizer decreased Na content in the plants under salt stress, and Na-TF, too, which suggests that the fertilizer decreased not only Na content in the plants, but also Na translocation to the shoot. However, in the plants under high salt stress, the fertilizer increased Na-TF of the plants, which suggests that the fertilizer decreased Na content in the plants, but enhanced Na translocation to shoot of the plants. And (4) the application of WRCRF increased K and Na selective translocation coefficient (S_K,Na) of the plants under low salt stress, and S_K,Na increasing with rising fertilizer application rate, which suggests that the fertilizer enhanced selective K translocation to shoot under low salt stress. However, the application of WRCRF decreased S_K,Na of the plants under high salt stress, and it did with rising fertilizer application rate. 【Conclusion】To sum up, rice plants applied with WRCRF (ZL 2012 1 0400570.0) under low salt stress significantly increased N, P, K absorption, decreased Na accumulation, enhanced selective K translocation to shoot, and maintained better ion homeostasis, thus, improving their salt tolerance. However, the plants under high salt stress, though applied with WRCRF (ZL 2012 1 0400570.0), significantly lowered their selective K translocation to shoot, and ion homeostasis, and hence gradually withered.