| Summary: | The study was conducted to test whether a vigor test of a single count of radicle emergence (RE test) would correlate with the storage potential of 10 seed lots of onion (<i>Allium cepa</i> L.) cultivars in artificial storage conditions. The RE test was performed by counting radicle emergence (2 mm) percentage at 80 h after germination was set up at 20 °C. Seed longevity was determined by storage at 75% relative humidity, obtained by saturated NaCl, at 35 °C over 60 days. Twelve seed samples were taken out during ageing, and seed survival curves were constructed based on normal germination percentages conducted at 20 °C for 12 days in the dark. The seed longevity criterion was <i>P</i><sub>50</sub> (time for the viability to fall to 50%), which was determined through probit analysis by using survival curves. Correlation analysis showed that RE counts at 80 h during germination were highly correlated (<i>p</i> < 0.001) with initial seed quality, <i>Ki</i> (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.888) and the half-viability period, <i>P</i><sub>50</sub> (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.823). Non-aged pre-storage final normal germination percentages of seed lots were also significantly related to longevity (<i>Ki</i>, <i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.808, <i>p</i> < 0.001, <i>P</i><sub>50</sub>, <i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.750, <i>p</i> <0.01), while the level of significance was lower. It can be concluded that the RE test can be used as a fast vigor test to estimate the longevity in onion seed lots.
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