Each ear may reach this stage at a different time on each plant, so you'll have to watch your plants closely. Also, corn grows so quickly, that timely harvest is crucial. In an extra day or two, the corn can grow larger than you might like for baby corn, giving a tougher and larger ear than might be good in a stir-fry dish or salad. Refrigerate your corn, with husks on, immediately after harvest if you don't use it right away. Baby corn can be pickled or canned, or blanched and frozen.
Baby corn has fewer pest problems than full-sized ears of corn.
Corn ear worms and cucumber beetles generally do their damage later, when the corn ear is filling out and maturing. Test crops of baby corn grown at Washington State University in western Washington in 1997 showed that growing corn under a floating row cover for the first couple weeks cover may advance harvest over growing it uncovered. Also, according to information from University of Minnesota, starchy feed corn, with a tendency to grow multiple ears, also works well as baby corn. Baby corn has not been commercially produced in the United States because it has to be harvested and processed by hand. But small local farms are starting to become interested in producing baby corn for local fresh markets.