Possibly mislabled? Looks like my Ruby Queen which is also from Burpee. Hard to tell from the picture, but does that spot get enough sun for corn?

the spot gets 8-10 hours of sun a day, some mild dappled shade. could be mislabeled I guess but doesn't ruby queen get taller before it tassles?

That's a buildup of sugar/starches in the corn...which is also a sign of little-to-no/poor kernel development.

It usually happens with extreme heat stress for consecutive days.

Have you been experiencing mid-90s+ weather for an extended stretch of time while it was tasseling/pollinating?

I've had my RQ tassel at the heights you indicate and continue to grow upwards while forming the ears. I'm curious, nc-crn, do you mean the red coloring or the odd kernel placement(which also happened on my RQ)? Anyway, I'm not wedded to the idea that it's just mislabeling, it was just very striking how much like RQ those plants look.

Here's my two cents. The corn looks over-crowed to me. You want thick stalks. Early varieties like Early Sunglo in my opinion are not vigorous enough for stressful situations.