Objective to evaluate the initial growth of seedlings of cultivated in different substrata baru. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse at the State University of Goiás, Ipameri, in plastic bags with a capacity of 8 dm-3. The experimental design was completely randomized design with four treatments and five replications. The treatments were comprised of formulated the basis of substrates: cerrado soil (S1); cerrado soil + cow manure in the ratio 2:1 tanned (S2); cerrado soil with saturation by bases corrected to 60 % (S3); and composts of forest (S4). The seedlings were conducted for 90 days, during which the following variables were evaluated-answers: height, diameter of the collect, number of leaflets, leaf area, dry weight of shoot, root, and total IQD. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and tukey test. Seedlings grown in S4 (composts forest) presented the highest average in height, diameter of the collect, and dry mass of leaves, stem, root and total, followed by the S3 (cerrado soil saturation of bases with 60 %), which also showed growing seedlings in height, diameter, and dry mass. Seedlings grown in S2 did not differ from those grown with the S1. The greatest seedling growth observed in the S4 and S3 can be related to the higher level of fertility of these substrates. The use of substrate formulated with composts forest provides seedlings of baru with higher quality to the field.