Abstract: To address the current challenge of blind fertilization in maize production, we designed a field experiment with three treatments:no fertilizer application, conventional fertilization adopted by farmers with 300 kg·hm^-2 of diammonium phosphate, 100 kg·hm^-2 of potassium sulphate as well as 53% maize formula fertilization with 350 kg·hm^-2 of formula fertilization and 225 kg·hm^-2 of urea. The SOD enzymatic activity and MDA content at each growth stage and yield were investigated. The results showed that, with different fertilization practices, SOD enzymatic activity in maize leaves increased firstly, reached a peak at the bell stage, and then decreased gradually. In addition, the SOD enzymatic activity in the treatment with formula fertilization was apparently higher than any other two treatments.MDA content continually went up across the whole period of growth, but the lowest value was found in the treatment of formula fertilization. The yield of formula fertilization treatment was the highest resulting in 8 538 kg·hm^-2, followed by the treatment of conventional fertilization with the yield of 7 698 kg·hm^-2, and the control treatment 7 129 kg·hm^-2. The yield of the formula fertilization treatment was 19.8% higher than control, while the conventional fertilization treatment was 8% higher than control. The formula fertilization would be practicable to the increase of maize yield.