Abstract: Improper water and fertilizer management is a common restriction factor for the production of spring cucumber under protected cultivation. A field split plot experiment was conducted to study effects of irrigation mode and nitrogen fertilizer application rate on yield and N use efficiency of greenhouse cucumber in early spring, providing a theoretical foundation for integrated management of reasonable water and fertilizer application under protected cultivation. The results show that the integration of irrigation and fertilizer obviously promoted the growth of greenhouse cucumber and increased the yield and N use efficiency. Under the same nitrogen levels, drip fertigation increased stem diameter, plant height and leaf number of greenhouse cucumber by 5.8%, 8.5% and 14.0%, respectively. Compared with spray fertigation, drip fertigation significantly increased the weight of single fruit, the amount of dry matter, nitrogen accumulation and N use efficiency, while the influence on fruit longitudinal diameter and transverse diameter was comparative less. The aerial growth of greenhouse cucumber in early spring can be promoted by proper application amount of N fertilizer. Under the optimum nitrogen fertilizer application amount, fruit yield could grow up to 82 913.4 and 63 792.6 kg·hm^-2 in the drip fertigation treatment (N basal application 245.0 kg·hm^-2) and spray fertigation treatment (N basal application 418.8 kg·hm^-2), respectively. However, excessive N fertilizer inhibited the growth of cucumber, reducing plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, weight of single fruit and fruit longitudinal diameter. Therefore, drip fertigation could synchronize nitrogen reducing application and water saving irrigation, improving cucumber yield and N use efficiency, and the optimum nitrogen amount was about 245.0 kg·hm^-2.