So I've been thinking about the Gospel of "heat" and figs, and I'm wondering...

When folk say that a fig needs a lot of "heat" to reach their best potential of taste . why is this so? Would this heat be the average temperature over the course of a day and an evening or simply the peaks of high temperature during the day?

Could it be the amount and intensity of sunlight / photoperiod that the trees are receiving is ripening the figs instead?

I'm in Florida, so "heat" and intensity of sunlight are not in short supply in either case..but Ive got a west-facing patio and a brick house ... that patio gets Rango-In-The-Desert kind of hot (my wife's nickname for me is, indeed, Rango) and Ive noticed that the potted trees I have on the patio are not only thriving but the figs (for such young trees) are also most delicious....

Just some random fig musings..maybe someone can enlighten me on the "whys and hows"...

In my experience, temps less that 80F don't really do much for you. Full sun, over 80F puts the fig in the "zone" to ripen with good flavor and good sugars.

A fig will "ripen" at 60F or 70F. It will go through the "motions" of changing color, getting soft, droopy, etc., but will not have the sugars and flavor of a fig ripened at 80-90F. This is why long season figs don't taste good when grown in seasons that are too short. A Panache ripened at the end of September is no where as good as one ripened at the beginning.

Trees on the north side of my E-W driveway all do better than those on the south side. They get more reflected sun and heat.

Can't quote any science or studies or anything else. Have just watched a lot of figs ripen.

No great discovery here. 
But I find that my cold hardy in ground figs that ripen later in the season (end of October or until 1st deep frost for me) don't have the same intense colours and are not as sweet as the figs that ripened in September.   Still Ok to eat though and are fine for processing (drying or freezing).

In general fruits need (x) heat units in a season to ripen to their peak maturity.  But nature being what it is won't wait for ideal conditions and will ripen as best as it can.  (x depends on the fruit, lots of studies on grapes haven't see a number for figs).
 

This is an interesting thread as I have wondered the same thing.  This is the first year that I have had enough figs ripening from various trees from mid-August onward into the Fall to really have first hand experience of what happens as the weather cools.  I have noticed the flavors not being as intense lately even though we are having very sunny days.  The highs have been in the low 70's and it just isn't enough heat apparently.  If we could get a 1 week stretch of 80-90 temps it would work wonders I'm sure.

I think the duration of direct sunlight matters the most.  And I agree that temperature matters too for the "quality" of the ripening.  But it's sometimes difficult to sort out the distinction between heat and direct sunlight, because of the obvious correlations.  (At my latitude especially, where the duration of direct sunlight diminishes so dramatically).  Especially considering extremely localized temperature (right in the fig itself and it's immediately surrounding couple of cubic inches), which is affected by absorption of infrared components of direct sunlight.  I'm sure someone could fashion an experiment under very carefully controlled conditions to separate the factors, but difficult to sort out the distinction in normally occurring conditions.  Regardless, I have seen figs ripen (albeit with reduced sugars) in cooler conditions (even down to the 50's F), but I've never seen one ripen without sufficient sunlight, and sufficient leaves to make use of that sunlight.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/what-causes-ripening-3049565?pid=1284349660#post1284349660

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

Agree both heat and sun are important. I do agree with Mike that even on a cooler day, in bright sun, the temperature of a fig can increase, particularly dark figs. Note here in northern NJ we've had very few days much above 85 this summer. Figs have been great. Tasted a RBD yesterday. Very sweet.

I am also wondering is day length is an issue.