enhance rooting of pawpaw shoots. The objectives for this project were to examine various layering systems to develop a clonal propagation method for pawpaw for research purposes, determine if juvenility plays a role in the rooting of pawpaw, and examine the effects of auxin and wounding on the rooting of pawpaw shoots in various layering systems.

The hypotheses for the sexual propagation portion of this thesis research project were that high levels of diversity of reproductive characteristics exist among accessions contained in the KSU-USDA NCGR orchards for Asimina species. The objectives for this project were to examine the diversity in vegetative and reproductive characteristics of pawpaw populations contained in the KSU-USDA NCGR orchards that may be useful in future pawpaw breeding efforts.