Garden Over Septic Field?

[ctpres]

Best clear space I have for garden is area were septic drain field is. Can a garden be safely grown on septic drain field? If yes would initial site prep with small 35 hp tractor be a problem? And typically how much soil would be on top of gravel?. I can clear more land but we love the trees.

 

[mikim]

I wouldn't do it on the dirt you have there. I know how you feel about the trees - I'm the same way ---- how about losing some lawn instead?

 

[polo1665]

I have the same situation at my place here in Ohio. All of my research into this led me to move my garden elsewhere. Every source of information suggested that it was not a good idea to grow a vegetable garden over a septic drain field. It is also not suggested to drive heavy equipment over the drain field. I had to move my garden roughly 150" further away from my work shop than I wanted. Fortunately I didn't have to cut any trees.
Check out this link.
Planting guidelines for gardens near septic systems, septic tanks, septic drainfields, septic mounds: growing fruits, vegetables, ornamentals near septic systems

 

[txdon]

And from the Virginia Cooperative Extension which does not eliminate the possibility just use precautions:



"Vegetable Gardens and Drainage Fields

Sometimes the ideal place to put a vegetable garden seems to be over the leach field, raising the question of bacterial and viral contamination from the effluent. Soils vary a great deal in their ability to filter viruses and bacteria. Clay soils work best, eliminating bacteria within a few inches of the drain trenches, but sandy soils may allow bacterial movement for several feet. A properly operating system will not contaminate the soil with disease-causing organisms, but it is very difficult to determine if a field is operating just as it should. If at all possible, use your septic drain field for ornamentals and plant your vegetables elsewhere. If you must plant vegetables, take the following precautions. Do not plant root crops over drain lines. Leafy vegetables could be contaminated by rain splashing soil onto the plant, so either mulch them to eliminate splashing or don't grow them. Fruiting crops are probably safe; train any vining ones such as cucumbers or tomatoes onto a support so that the fruit is off the ground. Thoroughly wash any produce from the garden before eating it. Do not construct raised beds over the field; they might inhibit evaporation of moisture."

Their web site: Planting on Your Septic Drain Field

 

[EddieWalker]

The problem with leach fields is that over time, they fill up with soil. The more active you are above the field, the quicker this happens. While some soil conditions are such that it doesn't matter how much fill gets into the field, other areas will cause failure fairly quickly. Activity above that field only speeds up the process. It's kind of like smoking. You don't really know how much shorter your lifespan will be because of smoking, but you know that if you never smoked at all, you would probably live a longer life. The same is true with your leach field.

Eddie

 

[ctpres]

I'll take Y'alls advise any day over Google. So I find another place. Thank You.

 

[LBrown59]

I'll take Y'alls advise any day over Google. So I find another place. Thank You.

Or just skip a garden.

 

[ToadHill]

As Irma Bombeck said, "The grass is always greener over the septic field."

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I was told to stay away from putting anything on the garden that involved waste from meat eaters (humans and such). And so I've also heard you shouldn't derive food from your leach field. I think the worry comes from the "mad cow" type issues that are involved.

Down in Victoria, the GBRA/waste department used to give away processed sludge for gardens and such and now I don't think they do it for the above reason.

Since we've had no rain, my leach field is the only green spot on our property.

 

[Doc_Bob]

Down in Victoria, the GBRA/waste department used to give away processed sludge for gardens and such and now I don't think they do it for the above reason.
.

Properly processed sludge is safe.
Bob

 

[RobA]

How about having a horse pasture in a septic drain field? One of the links in polo1665's post says not to but the argument didn't sound too strong. My current plan is to have a new drain field in the middle of what will be a pasture for 2 or 3 horses. I don't have a lot of options to move either the pasture or the drain field.

 

[Mike058]

How about having a horse pasture in a septic drain field? One of the links in polo1665's post says not to but the argument didn't sound too strong. My current plan is to have a new drain field in the middle of what will be a pasture for 2 or 3 horses. I don't have a lot of options to move either the pasture or the drain field.

Not a good idea according to my septic design guy. Horses hooves compact the soil and ruin the field.

 

[dooleysm]

I'm in the planning process of putting goats in a pasture over my septic field. My first plan was cattle, but I was discouraged due to the above mentioned compaction. I'm banking on the goats tearing it up less than me driving my tractor over it to mow it.

 

[Highbeam]

Do neither. No livestock and no tractor. Mow with a riding lawn mower or let go wild. It's all about compaction. The drainfield works by allowing air from above into the drain rock to provide an oxygen rich environment for final decomposition of the effluent. If you prevent air from getting through the soil through compaction then your field will plug with undecomposed stuff.

I apply generous amounts of processed sludge from a sewage treatment plant. It works great and is safe. Prior to distribution to the public it is "burnt" to eliminate the bugs. Works out to a 4-4-1 fertilizer and is free for the taking. I apply tons of it per year and it works great. Yes, a little mental barrier to the use of it but all is well.

 

[EddieWalker]

I apply generous amounts of processed sludge from a sewage treatment plant. It works great and is safe. Prior to distribution to the public it is "burnt" to eliminate the bugs. Works out to a 4-4-1 fertilizer and is free for the taking. I apply tons of it per year and it works great. Yes, a little mental barrier to the use of it but all is well.

I've been thinking of doing this out in my pasture and on my food plot when I disk it up in the spring. I have two contacts at two different plants, but haven't approached them yet. I think they'd give me anything I wanted, but don't know what to ask for. Before making a fool of myself, what are the terms for this and what does "burnt" mean? I don't know what the "bugs" are either?

Eddie

 

[Lasgambler]

Not a good idea according to my septic design guy. Horses hooves compact the soil and ruin the field.

When I lived in Las Vegas, My neighbors had to replace there leach field because of there horses walking in it. Terry

 

[Highbeam]

I've been thinking of doing this out in my pasture and on my food plot when I disk it up in the spring. I have two contacts at two different plants, but haven't approached them yet. I think they'd give me anything I wanted, but don't know what to ask for. Before making a fool of myself, what are the terms for this and what does "burnt" mean? I don't know what the "bugs" are either?

Eddie

Our sewage plant went through an upgrade in the past few years and one of the new machines was this sludge processor. The sludge processor takes this liquid slop stuff resulting from digested solids and heats it up well past 350 to disinfect any remaining bugs such as bacteria or viruses. Making a clean "class A" biosolid that is legal and safe for public distribution. The stuff is black, dry, and dusty and easily feeds through a whirly bird style of rotary spreader.

Your local plant may not be equipped with this type of machine so its final sludge product may not meet the class A criteria and so not be legal for distribution. If this is the case then you might see some resistance from the plant operators since they are taking a risk by giving it to the public. They are still responsible if you end up with coliform in your well or something even though a smart farmer knows how to apply manure products. There are some heavy metals and, well, hair/lint in it that don't digest.

There are several names for this product but there are only a couple of things that go away from a sewage treatment plant so your locals will quickly pick up on what you want. You can call it biosolids, digested sludge, solids, solid waste, etc. I think I would start with asking for the digested sludge. They should have dumptrucks of it. Some places, Tacoma, actually mix the digested sludge with sand and sawdust to make a topsoil but then you need to apply lots of it.

In the past, our local plants would take the liquid sludge and land apply it to hay fields from a tanker truck. One other plant used a drying bed process where they would spread it out into a big bath tub and let the water evaporate, then scrape up the remaining dry sludge and either land apply it or take it to the landfill. Really cool how during drying there would always be tomatoe plants growing in the sludge beds. Turns out that the seeds from the tomatoes are quite hardy and would make it all this way. Yes, the rural sewage plant guys would transplant and raise the tomatoes.

PM me eddie if you want the link to isntructions on how to apply it, chemical analysis, etc. Our local city puts out a public style newsletter on how to use it. It's a PR thing that has lots of information on what all sewage plants could be doing.

 

[EddieWalker]

Highbeam,

Thank you for the detailed information. I've hear them talk about scraping the drying beds, but never heard about them cooking it. I'll ask about that as one of the guys who works at a plant in a small town outside of Tyler will be at my Christmas Eve party.

I've also heard o the tomatoes growing in the waste pits, but thought they planted them there for some reason. Kind of a sewage guys way of gardening or that the tomato plant helps break down the solids. It never occurred to me that the tomato seeds would sprout and grow into tomato plants after being flushed down the toilet as a bowl movement. It makes me think of all those corn jokes!!!!!!

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Highbeam]

I thought that the operators were gardening too. While these guys usually also run a garden at the plant since they usually have lots of free time, the tomatoes were completely volunteers. Perfect environment with the hot mud from the reactor, tons of nutrients, plenty of moisture, and then laying out in full sun. Maybe the tomatoe seeds are small enough to avoid being chewed and hardy enough to make it through the long ride to the sludge beds.

Our local plant is quite proud of their monster pumpkins grown from bought seeds but heavily fertilized with the biosolids.

 

[Dongerosa]

Our sewage plant went through an upgrade in the past few years and one of the new machines was this sludge processor. The sludge processor takes this liquid slop stuff resulting from digested solids and heats it up well past 350 to disinfect any remaining bugs such as bacteria or viruses. Making a clean "class A" biosolid that is legal and safe for public distribution. The stuff is black, dry, and dusty and easily feeds through a whirly bird style of rotary spreader.

Your local plant may not be equipped with this type of machine so its final sludge product may not meet the class A criteria and so not be legal for distribution. If this is the case then you might see some resistance from the plant operators since they are taking a risk by giving it to the public. They are still responsible if you end up with coliform in your well or something even though a smart farmer knows how to apply manure products. There are some heavy metals and, well, hair/lint in it that don't digest.

There are several names for this product but there are only a couple of things that go away from a sewage treatment plant so your locals will quickly pick up on what you want. You can call it biosolids, digested sludge, solids, solid waste, etc. I think I would start with asking for the digested sludge. They should have dumptrucks of it. Some places, Tacoma, actually mix the digested sludge with sand and sawdust to make a topsoil but then you need to apply lots of it.

In the past, our local plants would take the liquid sludge and land apply it to hay fields from a tanker truck. One other plant used a drying bed process where they would spread it out into a big bath tub and let the water evaporate, then scrape up the remaining dry sludge and either land apply it or take it to the landfill. Really cool how during drying there would always be tomatoe plants growing in the sludge beds. Turns out that the seeds from the tomatoes are quite hardy and would make it all this way. Yes, the rural sewage plant guys would transplant and raise the tomatoes.

PM me eddie if you want the link to isntructions on how to apply it, chemical analysis, etc. Our local city puts out a public style newsletter on how to use it. It's a PR thing that has lots of information on what all sewage plants could be doing.

I know this is an old post...but I do want to comment on the "Alledge Safe" class "A" biosolid.

Even Class A is NOT totally free and the Class A, given the correct environment will grow more viable bacteria and CAN transfer disease. Also, when a pathogen (bacteria) dies, it leaves a shell called an "endotoxin". When endotoxins become 'dust', they can be inhaled by people and cause asthma or allergic reactions of the lungs, eyes, nose, throat or skin.A resource for verification that Class A can still be dangerous ; Survey of Wastewater Indicators and Human Pathogen Genomes in Biosolids Produced by Class A and Class B Stabilization Treatments