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  • Building A Corn Maze

    Looking for some information on building a corn maze. What type of seed, planting tips etc. Anyone with any know how would be great. Thanks

  • #2
    Hello,
    I would contact Tony at Spookywoods.
    www.spookywoods.com. He's been very successful at it.

    Chip "Pigman" DeLong
    Chip "Pigman" DeLong
    Scared to the Bone Productions
    Pigman's Lair Haunted Attraction
    Chelsea/Ann Arbor MI
    www.pigmanslair.com

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    • #3
      Thanks as well Chip since I plan to build up a cornfield set and possibly a maze as well.
      The word for the day is NPD. Check it out.

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      • #4
        I would contact Brett Molitor <brettmolitor@yahoo.com>

        He belongs to a Corn Maze Association and has cut mazes for people all over the country.
        R&J Productions
        Las Vegas, NV
        www.LasVegasHaunts.com

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        • #5
          Building a corn maze

          I posted this a while back that I would like to see someone build just to see if it would help people:
          http://forum.hauntworld.com/showthre...Corn-Maze-Idea
          RIP

          ~The Imagineer~

          Andrew de Ruiter

          Download part 1 of Andrew's Black Book of ideas for haunts here:
          http://www.epubbud.com/book.php?g=EGQDK8HZ

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          • #6
            I'd be happy to help...

            Although we're already out of the corn maze game there are a bunch of tricks. We plant around July 1 - that will keep your corn maze both green and strong during the season. Plant in two different directions. The first direction being 0 degrees, the second being 30 - 45 degrees across. a full 90 degree cross pattern will kill your farmer and he wont' like you very much.
            Corn ranges from 85 to 125 day maturity varieties. You want the longest variety available. This year we used a 117 day variety, and it will be harvested next week. This will keep a green maze the longest, plus it will increase stalk strength.
            Make sure you cut your maze once the corn is about 8-10" tall. If you let it get too big it will be very messy and tedious to make a maze.
            If you are willing to mow your maze every week, you could use a lawn mower and cut the maze 4-5 times. If you use a roto-tiller, like tony at spooky woods, you can till it just once and be done with it, but not everyone has a 5' tiller.
            You can have a service from Maize.com or one of those sites design your maze, or you can draw it and do an overlay on google earth and do it by hand. That's what I used to do.
            Email me at Legendsofthefog(at)gmail.com if you want any more info, I'd be glad to help.

            Patrick
            Patrick Barberry
            www.legendsofthefog.com
            sigpic

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            • #7
              NO!

              Don't do a 117 day corn on July 1 in ohio! I use a mix of 2-3 varieties in 102-105 day range and plant about May 23rd in central Michigan. I plant about 33,000 seeds/acre in 30" rows. Then I cross plant only 2 rows 5 feet apart every 60 feet for blockers. But my layout and design system is too complex to explain here. On Nov. 3rd the corn was about 22% moisture. If I had planted a 117 day corn on July 1 it would not have been about 45% moisture or more. Thirty five-45 MPH gusts didn't bother me. BUT THERE IS A HUGE DIFFRENCE IN SEED VARETIES on stalk strenght, stay green, brittle snap, etc.

              Wicked Farmer

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              • #8
                Originally posted by wickedfarmer View Post
                Don't do a 117 day corn on July 1 in ohio! I use a mix of 2-3 varieties in 102-105 day range and plant about May 23rd in central Michigan. I plant about 33,000 seeds/acre in 30" rows. Then I cross plant only 2 rows 5 feet apart every 60 feet for blockers. But my layout and design system is too complex to explain here. On Nov. 3rd the corn was about 22% moisture. If I had planted a 117 day corn on July 1 it would not have been about 45% moisture or more. Thirty five-45 MPH gusts didn't bother me. BUT THERE IS A HUGE DIFFRENCE IN SEED VARETIES on stalk strenght, stay green, brittle snap, etc.

                Wicked Farmer
                There's always more than one way to skin a cat. Every farmer will tell you May - something and a shorter variety. Check with your local mill to get an appropriate answer for building a corn maze for your climate and soil type.
                Patrick Barberry
                www.legendsofthefog.com
                sigpic

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                • #9
                  I will share a few tips... we actually did this two years in a row and the corn looked awesome actually grew to like 10 feet or something. There was a lot of pitfalls here...

                  1) You have to keep deer out because they get in there and want to eat the corn and they trample the corn field in the process.

                  2) You have to keep the corn field watered big time otherwise it will die. I know even Tony told me about having to bring in water trucks because of a drought and he lost the whole corn field.

                  3) Once the corn starts growing you have to go in and pick the corn so you can you have pathway through it.

                  4) Once the corn started to grow we built our pathway with fence between the customers and the corn. The customers and your actors can destroy the corn quick.

                  5) As for what kind of seeds to use and all that ... I'll tell you what we did we had a local farmer guy come over we paid him he planted everything and it worked like a charm. But if you go to the local seed stores farm supply stores they can tell you everything.

                  Larry
                  Larry Kirchner
                  President
                  www.HalloweenProductions.com
                  www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                  www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                  www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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                  • #10
                    Talk to wickedfarmer, he has been doing corn mazes for 14 years and he does not have any problems like Larry described above. His does not even get muddy in the rain. Check him out he is on this forum all the time.
                    Phatman

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                    • #11
                      Corn Maze!

                      Back in 1999 I planted 10 acres corn and figured how hard can it be to make a maze. That's the same way people think about haunted houses that think we work one month a year and make millions. That year I tried to do it on the cheap and I wasted my time.

                      2013 was our 13th year in a row with our Maize Adventure corn maze and 29th haunted attraction with Spookywoods. You can approach this idea in two ways, do it on the cheap or wow your guest with a top notch experience. Either way you choose you still have to grow the corn. Im going to to assume you have the proper zoning and permits, parking, restroom facilities, concessions, professional web site, office staff to answer the phones, irrigation system, liability and workers compensation insurance, marketing PR firm, and advertising budget. I only go for wowing our guests, so I hire a professional design firm to design a maze that looks amazing from the aerial photo and is well thought out to provide a fun experience using a smart phone app to play an engaging game. Not all designers are offering the same services, so do your homework!


                      First thing before you spend a dime is get your soil samples tested to see what the condition of your land is. Contact your local seed store or farmer for advice on that. However, your not planting corn for the same reasons everyone else does. You would be amazed at the various types of seed are available. You want a drought resistant, broad leaf, strong stalk, BT (bug resistant) seed. I tested various seed types over 5 years before I found the best one for my conditions in NC.

                      Once you have the seed picked out and your land prepped with what the soil test reports suggest, you have to decide when to plant. For me that is the first week of July since we open Labor Day weekend and use part of the field in Spookywoods. Once the first frost hits the corn is going to turn brown and die quickly, for us that can be mid to late October.

                      My advice is visit us in September and get a first hand look at what works! Our annual attendance is now over 100,000 across our four outdoor businesses. Haunt, corn maze, Zipline tour and laser tag. We are in a market with only 1.3 million people.
                      Last edited by twohlgemuth; 11-30-2013, 07:52 PM.
                      Tony Wohlgemuth,
                      Comes up with the fun stuff!
                      Kersey Valley, Inc.
                      www.KerseyValley.com

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                      • #12
                        Tony mentioned Bt.

                        Before people freak out let me explain a little about this. It is corn that can now produce it's own Bt....or bacterium that kills pests that attack roots or stlks/ears of corn. Bt bacterium has been used on vegetables since early 1900's. It is today used on vege's even for stores such as Whole Foods. I have done a maze for 13 years in the same field. Twenty years ago that would have been impossible due to Corn Rootworm. Yes Bt corn is that stuff you have heard about as GMO. Genetically Modified Organism...we have been genetically selecting for crop improvements for hundreds of years. There is different Bt types. You most want to understand there is above ground and below ground pests and the Bt is differnt..but both can be in the same corn variety.

                        My corn planter no longer has the insecticide boxes on it that literally dumped thiocarbamates, and organophosphates (NASTY NASTY SHIT!) to kill the bugs on top of the ground as it traveled across the field. Now Bt corn produces its own bacteria that kills the bugs. The Bt only efects those corn bugs that have the parts in their gut that humans and other animals do not have. (There was a bogus "scientific study" that concluded that GMO crops affected the digestive tract of hogs and SUGGESTED to sheeple it "could do the same to you" I will let you in on the magicians secret...if you do not roast the soybeans even certified organic will give hogs digestive problems....that was known BEFORE the bogus "study" was fabricated)

                        Today even the Co-founder of Green Peace laments the day they smeared GMO with what basically amounted to bogus slander.

                        Oh...and Tony missed one thing saying there are two ways to go with making a maze. There is the cheap way....his way of hiring a professional...and then there is Wicked Farmers way of designing it.

                        Wicked Farmer
                        Last edited by wickedfarmer; 11-30-2013, 09:37 PM.

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