Here, it IS still early-ish. It's a week before last average frost.
This year, I'm trying a different method -- I'm pre-germinating them in my seed sprouter, then sowing them in 2" mini soil blocks to keep in the garage. Once they sprout, I'll either plant them right away or hold them a little longer under the lights if there is space available, or put them out in the sun until I can plant them.
I'm using web trays so the root pruning should take effect, but I'm not sure if corn taproots SHOULD be root pruned -- they may not be able to send down deep roots to keep from falling over. So I "intend" to plant them right away as soon as they sprout in the soilblock.
They were soaked on 4/18, drained and started in the sprouter on 4/19 at approx. 68-72°F first day, then mid-70's °F thereafter.
As of today,
_________________4/20/13__4/21/13__4/22/13__TotalGerm'd___ungerm'd___%
Double Red Sweet.......20...........27...........16...............63.................32.....66.3%
Orange Squat (x2x?).....8...........13...........10...............31..................2......93.9%
Howling Mob...............16...........28...........16...............60................12......83.3%
Howling Mob was left over commercial seed packed for 2012 from RH Shumways.
Double Red Sweet and "Orange Squat" was from saved mature cobs from growing the Double Red Sweet I think it was 2009 or 2010. "Orange Squat" kernels were on the same cobs as Double Red Sweet so I'm thinking they were stray pollen crosses (I think I grew Cherokee Long popcorn in the vicinity). The whole dried cobs with husks intact had been "stored" in paper grocery bags in the pantry.

(Ignore the germinating peanuts

)
Golden Bantam seeds from saved cobs from 2008, shown among the corn seeds in the first picture, have not germinated yet so they are not in the above photo, but some are starting to show signs that they might germinate.