Don’t fret! It’s unlikely that the light is strong enough to have any real effect on your garden, as long as the garden is getting full sun otherwise. And even if it were strong enough to have an effect, light that’s in the red wavelength promotes blooming and fruiting in plants, which is a good thing for crops. 

Six inches is too deep for corn—2 inches is generally the best depth to plant the kernels at. Since you only planted them yesterday, there’s still time to dig them up and replant them a little shallower. They shouldn’t have any trouble germinating after being replanted. 

As for the Sell By date, don’t worry about that! Corn kernels can remain viable for years if stored properly (in a freezer), so a few months past their Sell By date won’t affect them at all. 

Hi Janell,

That is not true. If the corn has not matured by the time a late-season frost hits, the plants and cobs can be damaged and result in the death of the plant or poor-tasting corn. You can still eat it, but it may not taste very good.

Hi Sandy,

It sounds like your corn is infected with rust, a fungus disease that can greatly reduce the yield of your crops. There’s not much you can do at this point in preventing the rust, but the ears of corn can be eaten safely, though they may be poor-tasting depending on if the rust infected the ears specifically.

Small shoots that appear alongside the base of a primary corn stalk are known as “tillers.” These secondary stalks are actually a good sign; they mean that your plant is healthy and your soil is well-conditioned. Tillers are not an issue and generally won’t compete significantly with the central stalk, but if you’d like to be sure, you can simply cut them off at their bases. 

David, We must be perfectly honest with you: After the research you say you have done, you have much more knowledge about corn than we do! But we will concur with you, based on the (il)logical comparison to peaches, with which we have some knowledge (but, it must to said, not much luck). Peach growers are advised to remove/prune small fruits to allow a smaller but better harvest. We think that the same would apply to corn. And it seems to apply to other plants, such as melons and pumpkin. After all, if the plant puts its energy into the remaining “fruit” (or ears, in this case), wouldn’t it be as good as it can be?! Assuming every other aspect of the growing conditions are favorable, of course. We say, trim the ears off those stalks! And, if you feel it might be of value, leave a few stalks alone; don’t trim them, and see, come fall, which method seems most productive.

And let us know how this goes, would you?

The success of transplanting corn depends on several factors, including temperature, light, soil fertility, variety, container depth (to allow the seedlings to grow deep roots), giving seedlings time to harden off, not allowing them to grow too much before transplanting (2 to 3 weeks is likely OK), etc. However, it has been done with success. You may find the following article, by the Vermont Cooperative Extension, helpful, about one commercial grower’s experience.
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/transplantingsweetcorn.html
Good luck!

As far as companion plants, corn and potatoes do fine, although corn is a heavy feeder, while potatoes are medium feeders and do better without as much nitrogen (which encourages foliage rather than tuber formation). However, the other thing to keep in mind is the height of the corn. Plant them on the north side of the garden, so that they don’t shade the shorter potato plants too much. Also, corn, which is wind pollinated, does nicely in the garden when planted in blocks rather than rows.

Welcome to gardening, Willie! We have seen folks in a small-plot community garden create a mesh cage for the corn, specifically to keep critters away. We can not recall how that grower may have handled his tallest stalks. Check the seed packet/source to see how tall the corn can be expected to get. If it is not a whole lot taller, perhaps you can add a sort of mesh cover to the arrangement. If it is a lot taller,you might want to remake the cage to make it higher. It would seem a shame to put the crop at risk. Maybe you can use the existing cage, separately, as a pea fence or cuke/squash/melon vine trellis. Don’t think of the effort as wasted; there is always another use for the mesh.

In the meantime, we looked into the idea of topping off. Apparently, farmers who grow corn for seed corn production top off (cut off) as much as two feet of the stalk. This removes the tassels so that the plants can only be pollinated by other plants. This goes on to say that the rows of corn that are topped are female; the rows that are not topped are male. Pollen is produced on the tassel and crossbreeding begins. The result is hybrid seed. You probably do not want to do that.

We wish you the best—

In a healthy crop, removing the suckers, also called tillers, makes little difference to the harvest yield or health of the plant, since they usually appear later in the season and can’t compete with the main stalk. Their formation may indicate healthy conditions; some varieties tend to form suckers more often. If the crop had been damaged early in the season, or the plants are widely spaced, a corn plant may respond by growing suckers; in these cases, sometimes those suckers will produce harvestable ears. Otherwise, in a healthy, closely spaced crop, they won’t usually.
 
If you’d like to remove suckers, only do so when they are very small, to prevent damage to the stalk; removing them when they are larger will weaken the plant and invite insects and diseases.

The author is The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Web pages are updated continuously so there is not a publish date, per se.  Look up APA guidelines for how to reference a web article.

Germination depends on your soil temperatures and weather conditions. If the teperatures are 60 degrees F or warm, germination may take 10 to 12 days. If the temp is 50 to 55, it may take 3 weeks. 

For a fall harvest, it is recommended corn be planted mid- to late July, August 1st at the latest.