The objective of this work was to verify physiological quality of black oat populations, in order to know and point out the relationships among physiological characters for selection of progenies. The experiment was carried out at the laboratory of plant breeding and production, federal university of santa maria, campus of frederico westphalen - rs. Seed samples were collected from 14 black oat populations from small producers in the region, and cultivars brs madrugada and brs centauro (populations 15 and 16, respectively). A randomized block design with four replications was used. It was evaluated seed length, seed width, thousand seed weight, percentage of germination, non-germinated seeds, abnormal seedlings, hypocotyl length, root length, dry matter of seedlings. Populations revealed a difference in the physiological quality of seeds, and populations 1, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, with germination within the required standard, have a greater potential to compose progenies. Seed width, thousand seed weight, dry matter of seedlings and hypocotyl length revealed association with germination. It is worth highlighting that seed width and thousand seed weight are characters of easy and immediate measurement that can guarantee greater efficiency of selection.