I live on the east coast a few states north of you. I plan to put some vegged plants out after the first week of may. The 12 hours is def something your looking for, Id say start the seedlings a week or two before going out then flower/finish the autos outside. Id wait till the temps pick up and summer kicks in a little bit so you can get the sun when its boomin. You could do a few harvests this way, throughout the summer, but I honestly wouldn't do autos outdoors myself.. Hope you can pull a nice harvest this way though! Best of luck. Hope this helps.
