Dennis, are you sure it's not a brown turkey?    ;)

(Just kidding, enjoy them!)

I KNEW IT!  IT'S A BROWN TURKEY!  ;)

Gobble, gobble....

As usual, Vasile you are a world of knowledge. Thank you.

Dennis- your photo in post 13, it's the breba, right?

Navid.

I will have KB from Gene's tree for trades if anyone wants one. But I only took so many cuttings so . . .
There won't be any questions as to the variety as they were taken from "the" source.
PM if interested.

Gina, as an alumni of Va Tech we thank you for the turkey at any opportunity. Go Hokies! 

All you guys go jump!  Send all your brown turkey cuttings to Jason and Bob.  Send Gina all your Black Jack cuttings.  Call them some fancy French name like Ronde de Marseilles Noire.  Super hardy, produces red white and blue figs four crop per year.  ;-)

You people are a little whacky with the fig names, but I like it. Gina if you get one of those fancy Ronde de Marseilles Noire red white and blue figs I would love a cutting! As a reminder, Kathleen's Black was first discovered by Gene Hosey who unfortunately is no longer in the fig business. I purchased my plant directly from him as many here have. You can still see his site at East coast figs. His site is very informative and has a fair amount of pics. Gene suspected it was the same as Noire de Caromb, Dennis grows both but suspects they are different. He may be correct as Gene left the fig field before making a determination. Yes this is a must have fig. The taste is phenomenal and it is a good grower. Only knock on it I have is it is slow to begin fig production.  

Oh and Kathleen's Black was Gene Hosey's favorite fig. In his description of the fig he notes the similarity with Black Mission, but states KB is slightly larger. 

In my climate, no matter how much winter protection I give my KB, she still dies to the ground and comes back.  And the same goes for Beall and Black Mission NL.  I do like the flavor and taste of KB.  I  stopped winterizing mine 2 years ago but will try a double layer of frost blanket and leaves this year and see how it does.  It's going to be tricky for my climate because our cold weather is off and one throughout the winter.  One day it can be 20 degree and 5 degrees the next and 40 degrees the next.  So, I have to figure out how to do this using the blankets and leaves and keep it from getting too hot.

As I've been to the source tree 2x to take cuttings and seen that it just sits in the front yard of a townhouse in DC unprotected I don't understand why certain folks are having issues with dying back. I wonder if there is a possibility that more then one fig being called Kathleen's Black exisis. I know mine is the true cultivar and that it is a wonderful fig, both breba and main crop.

Dennis, how long has your KB been in the ground?  Do you get ripe fruit the season after it freezes to the ground?  I put my 6 month old KB in the ground in the Spring of 2013.  That season it grew great, looked beautiful (no fmv symptoms) and developed lots of figs that didn't quite have time to get ripe.  So I thought the next year is going to be a bonanza with this fig.  But then the polar vortex hit and it nearly froze to the ground.  When I came back it had a lot of fmv symptoms (a lot of splotchy leaves though no distorted leaves).  I guess the stress of being damaged so much brought out the symptoms.  It did put on a few figs but the cool weather in the Fall came too quickly for them to ripen.  Then it got hit again last winter and was damaged again though not quite as severely.  I think there were 2 trunks that had 6-12 inches of viable wood from which new shoots emerged.  By now it is a pretty good sized bush with one shoot over 7 ft high.  However, I only see one fig on the entire tree.  I'll be surprised if it gets ripe because it developed late.  So instead of becoming more productive with age it seems to be heading the opposite direction.  In my zone it does not seem capable of producing fruit as an in-ground tree after sustaining heavy cold damage. It is growing in one of the best spots of my yard.  If we got a normal to mild winter this year and it still doesn't ripen fruit then it will see the wood chipper!  I'm actually tempted to make a fresh start with a couple cuttings from a KB tree that hasn't been brutalized by the cold and see if it does better.

We seem to be drawing conclusions from tiny data bases again here on the forum. Mine is not in ground so my database has been the source tree which was absolutely loaded with wonderful ripe figs that went on the new owner's pizza and into my bag and my in pot trees. Up until this year I had 4 or 5 of them but sold all but one. I did make a start so I could have a second one. I sell trees locally and this year I had a lot of pressure to sell older trees otherwise I would have kept then for their superior flavor.

I have 2 large trees.  One in the ground the other in a 15g pot.  I can't recall the source.  I have to go look at the tag or check my database.  It's been in the ground 5 years.  Back when I first planted it, it fruited nicely...that was in 2010.  2010 and 2009 were some of our hottest summers with 90 degree days from March through October!   We have seen temps like that since.  The past 2 years of 5 degree temps made the in-ground tree trunk split and I chopped it to the ground. This winter I will winterize what's left of the tree and see if it helps.  

Michael and Dennis - thanks for chiming in.  I am mainly trialling varieties for performance in ground although on the long term I would be fine with having a handful of superior figs in containers if that is the only effective way to growth them.  Out of 13 in-ground varieties, KB has reacted the most poorly to the cold in terms of coming back and setting fruit.  I winterized it similarly to the others.  So it may very well be that, in zone 7 and colder anyway, KB needs to be grown in a container to be a reliable fig.  Then again, according to weather history we shouldn't be getting winters like we just had very often.  Maybe if I could taste just one KB fruit I would be less willing to give up on it!