I live in Seattle Washington where  for most figs, the growing season is too short. Several years ago, I received starts from Adriano in eastern Canada, of a variety (Melanzana) that he was certain would like it here in Seattle. The tree grew slowly, and eventually began to produce figs, but they always gave up before they matured because it would be late october, when there is just not enough warmth from the sun here to mature figs. 
So last year, I dug the hapless little fig up and put it in a huge pot, brought it in the house for part of the winter, and bought grow lights and set it in a window. So my artificial spring started about March; and the tree put on little leaves a full two months before the fig trees outside. (I have two other varieties, one that does very well here, and another who produces similarly to the one i have in the pot)

I thought I had given the fig an extra two months of growing season. I waited until all the outside figs had decent looking leaves on, and started exposing the tree to the outside world again, a few hours at a time, extending it until it was out all day and night.
Alas, it HATED the exposure to outside and nearly all of its leaves shriveled and fell off. New leaves grew of course, and I left it out in the sunniest location on my property (against a south wall) and it made fruit. They did not ripen in time, so when the weather turned cold, I brought it into the house. The little figs just sat there for almost a month and then finally they started to plump up. they were almost ripe! but they never finished, so i started picking them. Some were moldy, others were just insipid, they hadn't gotten enough sugar. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could have done this differently?

Greetings and welcome to the Fig Forum

Pack up your figs and move a few hours south to central California. That would surely help the fig production :-). I'm sure other forum members in your neck of the woods will provide more info!

brilliant idea! thanks for reading my post!

Welcome to the forum.

Someone on here taught me once:  leaves are prepared to survive in the conditions that they open to.  So the reason all your leaves were unhappy and fell off when you brought it outside, is because they had opened to milder radiant light (and spent their formative days in that milder radiant light).  What I've done to extend the spring season and try getting a jump start, is what many of the folks on here call "the fig shuffle".  I bring the trees out during daylight on any day above about 40F, and bring them inside at night.  (Sometimes just inside to a garage).  That way those leaves open in real sunlight, but they don't get damaged when the nighttime temps dip low.  It's a lot of work if you have a lot of potted trees, but it does provide some success at jump starting the season.

There are other techniques to bring on the onset of fruiting as well  (you'll find them discussed in various threads here... for example, try a search on the word "pinching").  Anything that gets the fruit to set earlier helps.  As for the end of the season, once there are too few leaves, the tree cannot ripen fruit any longer.  As you imply, leaves are sugar sources (at least once they've grown they are), and the fruit is a sugar sink.  

Good luck, and again, welcome.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a 

Grow the best fig suited for the PNW - aka., the famous (Desert) King fig.
It is a white 'San Pedro' type of fig - breba fruit only (on last year wood).
I have been told by a famous fig FF member, also from Seattle, WA,
that there is not enough heat there to ripen the (2nd) main-crop
(on current year wood) of any fig.
In most other places, the breba fruit ripens around mid June/July.
My big surprise was him saying that the breba fruit ripens much later in
Seattle (September?) - no hope for any (other) main crop fig(s)...

Grow figs only for the (1st crop) breba fruit.

Hello and welcome to the forum.  You might think of trying other varieties, as there are many varieties that will do well in Seattle that are tasty (such as the VdB, Hardy Chicago and more). Just as the senior members have mentioned on this forum in previous threads, they started different varieties that were hard to grow or not as tasty, but it all comes down to flavor and ease of care. There are just too many choices out there.  It's a lot of work for little reward when you can  get good tasty production for less work.  I suggest that you do some more research on varieties that do well in the Pacific Northwest's wet and short climate.  Hopefully this helps. Hope you find the answers you are looking for.

hello back, I do have other varieties, one which never fails, and one that was my grandmother's fig, originally carried from Italy, spent 30 years in New Jersey, and then 32 years here in Seattle. This one usually fails, but it's part of the family.  
I was told that my good fig is a "Dottata" or a honey fig.It has two crops, the second of which never ripens.  They are big wonderful sweet figs and they are ready late July or Early August..

I guess what you guys are telling me is that figs don't like being messed with? 

Welcome to Figs4fun forum

My welcome to the forum -Seattle chapter!  we are quite a few people in the area.  Well we need to meet and exchange some fig trees. I live by Northgate and am in process of replanting larger airlayers of my unknown excellent 24year old purple fig tree (I harvest one more ripe fig today- ripes from july onto winter). 

This is my first year experimenting with other varieties and I have several little trees happenin, but i am eyeing the larger trees i see around, to make sure I grow what grows well for us in this soggy city.
I have other plants also and willing to trade or simply share.  

Sydney has been cold and soggy too this week and it's spring. Not good for the veges or figs!

Welcome to the forum, you have a very similar climate to here in the UK, if you go for main crop figs you need to remove any breba crop before it forms,
Here is a post that Herman2 posted, I hope it helps and also hope he doesn't mind me posting it.