The closest full fall-farm experience to Wilmington, with a four-mile corn maze and a paid workshop programme alongside the patch - but as of late August 2026 it had still not posted pumpkin patch dates or admission prices, so call before you drive.
No 2026 pumpkin patch admission price was published on the farm's site when read in August 2026. Individual workshops are priced separately (for example a watercolour workshop at $60 per person).
Trask’s position is its main asset. Castle Hayne is roughly ten minutes north of Wilmington, which makes this the default full fall farm for a city of considerable size and the easiest such trip on the southern coast. Convenience of that kind reliably converts into October weekend crowds, and it is the first thing to plan around.
Confirmed: the farm is open Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays, 9am to 6pm Tuesday through Saturday and 9am to 5pm on Sunday. It shuts entirely for August and reopens in September. U-pick flowers begin September 1. There are live music dates on September 26, October 17-18 and November 1. The corn maze is advertised at four miles of paths. There is a farm store, hayrides, a sunflower maze, bubble activities, farm-to-table dinners, a floral and art workshop programme and school field trips.
Not confirmed: when the pumpkin patch actually opens in 2026, when it closes, and what it costs to get in. Those had not been published when we read the site in late August, and we are not going to invent them. If pumpkins are the reason for the trip - rather than flowers, the maze or the music - the call to 910-617-3893 is the difference between a good afternoon and a wasted drive.
That gap is more consequential here than it would be at a farm that opens on a fixed weekend every year. Trask’s September reopening leads with flowers, not pumpkins. A family that arrives on September 6 expecting a pumpkin patch will find sunflowers and zinnias instead, which is lovely but is not what the children were promised.
This is the standout attraction and it deserves to be taken seriously. Four miles of paths is a large maze anywhere and unusually large for the coastal plain, where corn mazes tend to be modest. Two consequences follow.
First, allow time. This is not a twenty-minute diversion between the hayride and the farm store; it is the main event, and a family working through it properly will spend a substantial part of the visit inside it.
Second, think about the heat. Early October in New Hanover County is still warm - genuinely warm, not mountain-October warm - and a corn maze provides no shade to speak of. Water, hats and an early start matter more here than they would at a farm two hours inland. The 9am open makes that easy to arrange.
Trask runs something most fall farms do not: a paid workshop schedule covering watercolour, cyanotype, pottery painting and floral work, at around $60 a head on the one example we could record, plus farm-to-table dinners and the live music dates. That is a genuinely different product from a family patch visit and it is priced accordingly.
Two practical points follow. If you are an adult looking for a fall afternoon that is not primarily about children, this is one of the few farms in the region offering it. And if you are bringing a family, keep the workshop pricing mentally separate - $60 per person is a workshop rate, not a farm admission, and the two should not be confused when you are budgeting.
New Hanover County is directly on the hurricane track and the season overlaps the front of patch season every year. Flat coastal ground holds water, so a storm in late September or early October can put a farm field out of action for days after the weather itself has cleared. Look at what the preceding week has done, not only the forecast, and given how little of the 2026 schedule is published here, treat the phone call as part of the plan rather than an optional extra.
The farm is open Tuesday to Sunday and closed Mondays year-round. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 6pm and Sunday 9am to 5pm. It closes entirely for August and reopens in September, starting with u-pick flowers rather than pumpkins - so an early-September visit gets sunflowers and zinnias but not a pumpkin patch. The 2026 pumpkin patch opening date had not been published when this was written. Known event dates on the calendar are live music on September 26, October 17-18 and November 1, and u-pick flowers from September 1. Given the Wilmington catchment, a weekday morning is a very different farm from an October Saturday afternoon.
Three hours or more if you are doing the corn maze properly. Four miles of paths is genuinely large for the coastal plain and it is not a twenty-minute walk-through.
This is the nearest full fall farm to Wilmington, which is both its convenience and its problem. October weekend afternoons will carry the whole city's demand. Tuesday through Friday mornings are the obvious escape, and the 9am open makes an early visit easy.
Not published. Assume field or gravel parking on flat coastal-plain ground that drains slowly. New Hanover County is directly exposed to hurricane season, which overlaps the opening weeks of the patch season, and a saturated field is the most common reason a fall farm day gets cancelled here.
Nothing published. A four-mile corn maze and a working farm are uneven ground by nature; the farm store is the part of the visit least likely to present a barrier. Call 910-617-3893 to ask before travelling.
Monday is your only free day - the farm is closed Mondays year-round. Skip an August trip entirely, since the farm shuts for the month. And skip a spontaneous drive for pumpkins specifically until you have confirmed the patch is open, because the 2026 dates had not been posted in late August.
Castle Hayne is about ten minutes north of Wilmington, so the farm pairs naturally with the city - downtown, the riverfront, or the beaches at Wrightsville if the weather is still warm, which in early October it usually is. Because the farm closes at 6pm on Saturdays and 5pm on Sundays, do the farm first and the city afterwards.
No 2026 pumpkin patch admission price was published on the farm's site when we read it in August 2026. Individual workshops are priced separately - a watercolour workshop was listed at $60 per person. We have no figure for general patch admission and will not guess at one.
The farm had not published pumpkin patch opening dates as of late August 2026. What is known: the farm closes for August, reopens in September starting with u-pick flowers from September 1, and has event dates on September 26, October 17-18 and November 1. Call 910-617-3893 before driving out for pumpkins specifically.
Tuesday through Sunday, closed Monday. Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 6pm, Sunday 9am to 5pm.
The farm advertises four miles of paths, which is a large maze for the coastal plain. Allow real time for it and treat it as the main event rather than something to squeeze in before closing.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Tuesday-Sunday, closed Monday. Check with the farm before driving out.
Admission pricing was not published when we last checked. No 2026 pumpkin patch admission price was published on the farm's site when read in August 2026. Individual workshops are priced separately (for example a watercolour workshop at $60 per person).
3650 Blue Clay Road, Castle Hayne, NC, in New Hanover County. It is one of 3 patches we track in Coastal North Carolina.
We track 3 patches in Coastal North Carolina. The farm has not published a gate price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 1 of the 3 patches we track in Coastal North Carolina had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
Map pin is set to the town centre. Navigate to the street address above, not the pin.
traskfamilyfarms.com
Checked August 2026.