Aims <p>Soil nematode are valuable biological indicators of soil health. Studying soil nematode communities helps understanding the responses of the structure and functional of soil food web to different fertilization methods.</p> Methods <p>We conducted a randomized group fertilization study in Lei bamboo forests using nine treatments: consisting of pig manure organic fertilizer (A), chicken manure organic fertilizer (B), cow manure organic fertilizer (C), and oilcake (D), organic fertilizer mixtures, AD, BD, CD as well as a formulated inorganic fertilizer (E), and there was no fertilization measure as control (CK). We investigated the effect of different fertilizer application on soil nematode community structure.</p> Results <p>Except for treatments D and E, all fertilization methods increased the proportion of soil nematode community c-p 3–5. In D and CK treatments, the dominant trophic group of nematodes was bacterivores. However, in all other fertilization methods, the dominant trophic group was plant parasitic nematodes. Redundancy analysis showed that soil available phosphorus content was a significant factor affecting the composition of soil nematode communities, and soil total phosphorus content was a significant factor affecting nematode trophic groups. Fertilization could directly affect the composition of plant parasites, or indirectly affect plant parasites by affecting soil hydrolyzed nitrogen, available phosphorus, and bamboo shoot yield.</p> Conclusions <p>Our study demonstrated that fertilization significantly increased bamboo shoot yield, and whether applying pig manure or oil cake significantly increased the diversity of soil bacterial communities. Soil available phosphorus content was a key factor affecting the composition and abundance of soil nematode community.</p>