The seedling vigor of 80 barley recombinant chromosome substitution lines (RCSLs) was measured for selecting high seedling vigor genotypes. The RCSLs were derived from a cross between H. vulgare subsp. spontaneum and H. vulgare subsp. vulgare ‘Harrington’. The work was carried out under greenhouse conditions during the summer of 2008. The experimental design was an alpha lattice with 3 replicates. In each replicate, 40 plants were established, distributed in eight polyethylene pots containing sand as substrate, which were fertilized an irrigated. The emergence of seedlings, number of leaves and shoots, dry matter of leaves, shoots and roots and leaf area of fully expanded leaves were measured. In addition, growth indices were calculated: emergence rate, leaf appearance rate, relative leaf expansion rate, relative growth rate (RGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), leaf area ratio (LAR) and the allometric coefficient (K) between root and shoot dry matter. All calculated indices varied significantly among genotypes (P≤0.05) and some RCSLs showed better early vigor associated traits than ‘Harrington’. The dry matter accumulation 30 DAS (when the experiment ended) was significant and positively correlated with the RGR (r=0.61; P≤ 0.05) and NAR (r=0.41; P≤0.05). The K coefficient was negatively correlated with NAR (r=-0.40, P≤0.05). The genotypes with the greatest seminal vigor were the RCSLs 45, 92, 112 and ‘Harrington’, whereas the RCSLs 5, 19, 47 and 121 presented the lowest seminal vigor.