The objective of this work was to determine the best selection strategy to improve seed germination rate and assess their effectiveness at two temperatures (20ºC and 35ºC). First count (vigor) and germination rate at 20ºC and 35ºC were used as evaluation criteria. Seeds of 27 carrot breeding populations derived from cultivar Brasília and three commercial standard cultivars were used in a randomized block design with three replications of 50 seeds for each accession. The correlation pattern among traits was estimated and treatment means were compared. First count (vigor) and germination were significant among populations. No correlation was observed between first count and germination rate at the two temperatures. This result suggests that selection for increasing seed germination should be carried out at both temperatures in order to avoid potential loss of adaptation to one of them. First count and seed germination rate had high correlations at each temperature, indicating that a single character could be used in the evaluation.
Daucus carota L.; term-inhibition; plantlet establishment
