Maize (Zea mays) is one of the most important cereals of nowadays and is a susceptible crop to drought. Because of its easy cultivation, corn is grown all over the world and is increasingly suppressing wheat and rice. The crop is sensitive to drought. Drought is one of the most important abiotic stress that affects plant growth, development and productivity, greatly reducing the yield of cultivated species worldwide. In the early vegetative stages of growth, maize needs a certain amount of water in order to develop properly and maintain a normal plant structure to carry out all physiological and metabolic processes, on which potential yield ultimately depends. The greatest needs of maize for water are just before brooming, during silking and fertilization, at the beginning of grain filling, and if drought occurs in these stages, the loss of yield can be up to 50%. For these reasons, breeders are looking for a hybrid that will maintain a stable and satisfactory yield under the drought conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the drought tolerance of maize hybrids of two different FAO groups in the early vegetative stage. As plant material eight genotypes (hybrids) of maize from FAO group 300 and eight genotypes from FAO group 600 were used, in early vegetative growth. Seeds were germinated in a growth chamber at 22 ° C and photoperiod 16 h day / 8 h night. On the seventh day after sowing, the plants were carefully separated and transplanted into plastic tubes filled with vermiculite. The tubes were placed in tubs filled with half the concentration of Hoaglad's solution (control) or the same Hoaglad's solution with 6% dissolved polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000. The length and weight of the fresh and dry roots and shoots of each plant were measured and it was calculated one derived property - drought tolerance efficiency (DTE). At the end of the experiment, a very large difference was observed between plants grown in drought and control. The average values of the properties show that the values of the measured properties, apart from the dry root mass, are lower in PEG than in the control, which means that PEG, simulating drought, had a negative effect on plant development. Significant differences between FAO groups 300 and FAO groups 600 were observed for the following traits: root length in PEG, shoot length in control and PEG and for the weight of the fresh shoots in control and PEG. Observing individual hybrids, genotypes 8 and 30 are genotypes that have retained high values in drought for a number of traits measured here and can be considered drought tolerant in the early vegetative growth phase.