Sugar alcohols which are products of photosynthesis of many plant species have a variety of biological effects and participate in plant life activities through different ways. Sugar alcohols-chelated fertilizers synthesized with sugar alcohol as a chelating ligand promote the migration of calcium, boron, and other nutrients in plants. Although related studies have shown that sugar alcohol chelating agent can effectively improve crop yield and quality, its development in China is still in the initial stage. One reason for this slow adoption is that researchers pay more attention to the efficiency of sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers than they do for the response mechanism of crops under different conditions. Thus, scientific research on sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers lags far behind its practical application, which has resulted in the lack of in-depth understanding of the ecological effects. Importantly, previous studies have often neglected the role of sugar alcohols in organisms, and sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers are mostly mixtures, so it was difficult to distinguish whether sugar alcohols or sugar alcohol complexes played a key role in promoting crop growth. Besides, due to the unclear chelating mechanism of sugar alcohol complexes, it was difficult to use available methods to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis. This hindered the promotion and application of sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers in China's agriculture. Based on the above reasons, this paper briefly describes (i) sugar alcohol chelating technology, (ii) the advantages of sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers, (iii) the biological effects of sugar alcohols in plants, and (iv) the shortcomings in the research of sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers through the current application status. Thus, this review aims to provide a technical basis and development direction for the research, development, and popularization of sugar alcohol chelated fertilizers.