In order to use tissue culture to improve elite Canadian genotypes of barley ('Hordeum vulgare' L.), current tissue culture protocols require revision. Three studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of genotype, the composition of the initiation media, effect of explant preparation, the composition of the regeneration media and the location in which the donor plants were grown on the success of barley embryo culture. "AC Bacon", "AC Metcalfe" and "Oxbow" were the elite Canadian cultivars evaluated in the field and growth cabinet studies, and the cultivar "Golden Promise" was also included as it is regarded as the model cultivar in barley tissue culture systems. The greenhouse study (Section 4.0) evaluated the same cultivars except "AC Metcalfe" was replaced by "AC Rosser". Immature zygotic embryos were used as the explant tissue for all studies. Explant preparation was evaluated by comparing intact immature embryos to microsections of immature embryos as the initial explant. Immature embryos collected from donor plants grown in the greenhouse, field plot or growth cabinet were compared as explants. Callus initiation media and regeneration media were all modified types of Murashige and Skoog (MS) media (Murashige and Skoog, 1962). (Abstract shortened by UMI.)