The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of sampling intensity, initial collection's size and its variance over the quality of the respective core collections, in terms of representation of the initial collections. Therefore, simulations were performed for seven sizes of the initial collections and six sampling intensities for the establishment of core collections were used, comprising morpho-agronomic traits. Groups formed were determined, as well as the coincidence coefficient between the core and the initial collection, and the determination coefficient of the accessions sampling to compose the core collection. The use of an alternative strategy was proposed to establish core collections, this strategy maximizes the diversity among the accessions. The size of initial collections affects the sampling intensity to be used to obtain a core collection. The selection of accessions with the method of Tocher, comprising criteria of inverse grouping, was efficient for the formation of the core collections. The different magnitudes of variance of the initial collections did not affect either the coefficient of determination (R²) or the coincidence rate between initial collections and respective core collection.
germplasm collection; core collection; sampling intensity; coincidence rate; Tocher method
