Salinity is a critical challenge facing productivity of crops around the world, causing major reduction in growth, yield, and quality. It is necessary to produce varieties with the ability to tolerate salinity. However, the lack of genetic variation among H. vulgare genotypes prevents progress in developing salt tolerant varieties. H. bulbosum is a source of tolerance to stress conditions. Consequently, five accessions of domestic barley and six of wild barley were used in this study. Accessions were screened for salinity tolerance. Genotypes 7, 9, and 10 germinated at 2% NaCl. Lines of H. vulgare showed reduction of root and shoot length greater than H. bulbosum. Crosses were made between diploid and tetraploid H. vulgare ♀ and tetraploid H. bulbosum ♂. Immature embryos were rescued. Murashige and Skoog medium was found to be generally better for most crosses. Number of successful crosses varied among families. Female 5, for diploid crosses, and female 2, for tetraploid crosses, have high GCA and compatibility with bulbosum males, and 17.9% and 17.6% of their progeny exceeding the mean grain yield, respectively. Parent 9 had also high GCA and compatibility with vulgare parents (2x), and its progeny seem to exceed the mean in many cases with most families. During germination screening, progeny of diploid females 1 and 2 were found to be highly desirable for saline tolerance. Among the tetraploid crosses, Family 1 had greatest percentage of superior progeny (18.8%), while Families 2 and 3 had greatest number of superior individuals (8 and 7, respectively). For seedling growth, diploid Families 2 and 3 crosses had the greatest shoot dry weight and tolerant saline index (SSI<1). Families 2 and 4 of tetraploid crosses had 12 of 39 and eight of 26 crosses show greatest shoot dry weight and tolerance as measured by SSI, respectively. Final germination percentage (FG%) showed positive association with plant height, while associating negatively with tiller number, fertility, cSW, and grain yield. In diploid crosses, FG% associated positively with tiller number. Shoot dry weight showed negative association with plant height, while it associated positively with tiller number, fertility, cSW, and grain yield.