The 12-12 formula has been accepted without question by growers all over the world. Probably one of the reasons for this was my discussion of the technique in some of my early books. The 12-12 regimen was selected because my co-author and I reasoned that no matter what critical period a variety might have, given 12 hours of darkness it would flower. However, most marijuana varieties need fewer than 12 hours of darkness to flower.
If marijuana plants grown outdoors required a 12-hour dark period to flower, they would not be induced to start flowering until September 21, the first day of autumn, when day and night are equal length. They would ripen 6-8 weeks later. In real life most modern varieties ripen between early September and late October. Budding was triggered 6-8 weeks earlier. For instance, an eight-week variety that requires 55 days from forcing to maturity, which would normally ripen on October 1st, would start flowering August 1. At that date in San Francisco, sunrise occurs at 5:14 and sunset at 19:18, a total of 14 hours 4 minutes. Dawn and dusk add another 15 minutes of red light. Plants use the absence of this spectrum to measure the dark period. The total lit period came to about 14:20, leaving 9:40 minutes of darkness. The critical period for this plant was 9 hours 40 minutes. If it were given just 10 hours of dark period daily indoors, rather than 12 hours, it would still flower.
Gardeners growing outdoors who discover the critical time needed to induce flowering can use this information to get more efficient use of their indoor garden. Currently, plants grown under a 12/12 cycle spend half their time in the dark. If the plants have a critical flowering time of, for instance, 10 hours of darkness daily, they can be provided 14 rather than 12 hours of light each day so that they receive almost 17% more energy which they use to produce sugars used for more and faster growth.