One of the longest fall seasons in the Charlotte region and one of the clearest price grids, with a genuine $3-a-head saving for booking online - but early-season weekdays do not open until 1pm, which catches out families planning a morning.
Farm Fun Pass: $14.95 online / $17.95 at the gate on weekdays; $16.95 / $19.95 on September and November weekends; $19.95 / $22.95 on October weekends. Weekday AGventure Pass $25.95-$28.95 early season (includes a pumpkin) or $21.95-$24.95 late season. AGventure Fun Cards $19.95-$20.95 for 10 punches and $36.95-$39.95 for 20. Children under 2 free; 10% off for seniors 55+ on Tuesdays; military discount available.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $59.80 in admission alone at the posted starting rate, before pumpkins, food, parking or any add-on listed above. Most families end up well north of that once they are through the gate.
Patterson has done something most farms in this category have not, which is publish a complete and legible price structure before the season starts. That is genuinely rare, and it makes this one of the few operations around Charlotte you can budget for accurately from your sofa.
It also makes the farm easy to read. The prices are not flat because the demand is not flat, and the grid is effectively the farm telling you which days it expects to be busy.
Two adults and two children over the age of two, on an October Saturday, buying online: $79.80. The same four people paying at the gate: $91.80. The same four people on a Tuesday in October, booked online: $59.80.
That is a $32 spread on identical people doing an identical thing, and none of it depends on negotiating or on a coupon. It depends on which day you go and whether you spent two minutes on your phone first. If your schedule has any flex in it at all, this is the highest-value decision on the page.
Then the extras. Gem mining and goat fishing are pay-per-play, which is why the punch cards exist - $19.95 to $20.95 for ten punches, $36.95 to $39.95 for twenty. A family that says yes to everything is realistically at $110 to $120 on an October weekend once you add a pumpkin and something to eat. Nothing about that is deceptive, but the $19.95 headline is a floor rather than a day.
The AGventure Pass is worth a moment of thought. It is weekday-only, $25.95 to $28.95 in the early season, $21.95 to $24.95 late, and it includes a pumpkin. Against a $14.95 weekday Farm Fun Pass, you are paying $7 to $14 more per person for a pumpkin plus extra activities. For a family of four that is a real sum, so the question is whether you want four pumpkins.
Between September 14 and November 1, weekday opening is 1pm. This is the single most likely way to waste a morning here. Farms open in the morning, that is the assumption everyone carries, and a family driving out to Mount Ulla at 10.30 on a Wednesday in October will find nothing happening.
The reason is presumably school groups, which the farm hosts. It does not change the practical effect, which is that early-season weekday visits are afternoon visits and you have five hours to work with, not eight.
From November 2 that inverts. Weekdays and Saturdays run 9am to 5pm, Sundays are gone entirely, and the whole operation shifts into a quieter, cheaper, earlier rhythm.
Almost nobody thinks about a pumpkin farm after Halloween, which is why the November 2 to 21 window here is worth naming. You get 9am openings, the lowest weekend tier, and a farm running at a fraction of its October intensity. The trade is that the seasonal atmosphere has gone and the light dies early - a 5pm close in mid-November is close to dusk in the Piedmont.
For a family with a small child who finds crowds hard, or for anyone who wants the corn maze without three hundred people in it, this is the visit to book.
The record says nothing about parking surfaces, accessibility, or what pumpkins themselves cost, and those are all worth a call on 704-797-0013 if they bear on your day. The market and ice cream shop, usefully, run Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm on their own schedule, so a doughnut-and-produce stop does not require paying admission at all.
September 14 to November 21, 2026, which is ten weeks and unusually long for North Carolina. The season splits in two. Until November 1, weekdays open at 1pm and weekends open at 10am, closing at 6pm. From November 2 the farm switches to 9am to 5pm on weekdays and Saturdays and closes Sundays entirely. The cheapest and quietest visit is a weekday in that November window: $14.95 online, a 9am start, and none of the October weekend pressure. The most expensive and busiest is an October Saturday afternoon.
Three to four hours if you are paying October weekend rates. With a corn maze, wagon rides, a playground, a tractor track, diggers and a barnyard included in the pass, a two-hour visit leaves value on the table at $19.95 a head.
Ten weeks of season spreads demand better than most farms manage, but October weekends still concentrate it, and the farm's own pricing admits as much by charging $19.95 online then rather than $16.95. Read the price grid as a crowd forecast: the tiers tell you exactly which days Patterson expects to be full.
Not published. Mount Ulla is farm country in Rowan County and this is a working operation, so plan for field or gravel parking and soft ground after autumn rain. Tropical systems still reach the Piedmont in late September and early October and the ground holds water for days afterwards.
Not addressed in the published material. A corn maze and a wagon ride are inherently uneven and stepped; the market and ice cream shop are more likely to be manageable. Call 704-797-0013 before travelling if this matters.
You have teenagers and no younger children. The list is playground, tractor track, diggers, goat fishing and gem mining - excellent for a six-year-old, thin for a fourteen-year-old. Skip an early-season weekday too if your children nap in the afternoon, because the gates do not open until 1pm before November 2.
Mount Ulla sits in Rowan County between Charlotte and Statesville, so it works as a day out from either. The on-site market and ice cream shop run Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm independently of the fall event, which makes a market-only stop possible on a day you are not paying admission.
On an October weekend, $79.80 with online Farm Fun Passes at $19.95 each, or $91.80 buying at the gate. On a weekday it drops to $59.80 online. Children under 2 are free, and pumpkins and the pay-per-play activities are extra.
From September 14 to November 1, weekdays open at 1pm, not the morning. Weekends open at 10am. From November 2 the farm runs 9am to 5pm on weekdays and Saturdays and is closed on Sundays.
The Farm Fun Pass is the standard admission and is sold every day. The AGventure Pass is weekday-only, costs more, and includes a pumpkin plus additional activities. If you want a pumpkin and are visiting midweek, price both.
No. Gem mining and goat fishing are pay-per-play extras, which is what the AGventure Fun Card punch cards are for.
September 14 – November 21, 2026. Daily during the early season; closed Sundays from November 2. Hours: September 14-November 1: weekdays 1:00pm-6:00pm, weekends from 10:00am. November 2-21: 9:00am-5:00pm weekdays and Saturdays, closed Sundays. Market and ice cream shop Mon-Sat 9:00am-6:00pm..
Admission starts at $14.95 per person. Farm Fun Pass: $14.95 online / $17.95 at the gate on weekdays; $16.95 / $19.95 on September and November weekends; $19.95 / $22.95 on October weekends. Weekday AGventure Pass $25.95-$28.95 early season (includes a pumpkin) or $21.95-$24.95 late season. AGventure Fun Cards $19.95-$20.95 for 10 punches and $36.95-$39.95 for 20. Children under 2 free; 10% off for seniors 55+ on Tuesdays; military discount available.
10390 Caldwell Road, Mount Ulla, NC 28125, in Rowan County. It is one of 5 patches we track in Charlotte Region.
We track 5 patches in Charlotte Region, 2 of which are free to walk into. At $14.95 a head this one sits right on the regional median of $14.95.
Its season runs about 69 days against a regional average of 54, so it is a notably longer window than most of its neighbours, which takes the pressure off picking a weekend.
What sets it apart locally: it has a corn or crop maze, which most Charlotte Region patches on our list do not.
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
visitpattersonfarm.com
Checked August 2026.