# raspberrys on drainfield - Okay?



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I keep the brush and trees clipped off when I see them getting started on my drainfield but now I've got raspberry's starting to take over.

Can they be allowed to grow there or do I need to nuke them with Roundup next summer?


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Raspberries are fine on your drainfield.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Thanks.

That's good news because they choke out almost everything else and should make a good snow catcher to help insulate the field.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

I noticed CF didn't say anything about actually eating the raspberries.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I leave them for the birds anyway. The drain field is in the woods and I've got plenty trying to take over my driveway.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

It would be perfectly safe to eat the raspberries.


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## LittleRedHen (Apr 26, 2006)

I grow tomatoes over mine..... But not root crops. It would not bother me at all to have raspberries growing there


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Cabin Fever said:


> Raspberries are fine on your drainfield.


You don't think a bunch of raspberry plants allowed to grow could cause a problem with roots plugging the drain lines? I would think the roots would go right to the moisture. Why I ask, my drain lines are about 16" deep. 

When I went to work for a small city, they had let grass grow on their sand filter for the sewer system. There was a maple tree near and the seeds had sprouted small maple trees 2' tall also. The protocol was to expose these lines once a year to make sure each drain hole was open, remove the end cap and flush each line, they didn't, so the grass and tree roots had plugged many of the holes, the sand filter was not doing its job because the water was all in certain places, not spread out all over the sand bed. I pulled large clumps of grass for weeks, added a root killer to kill the roots. Removed each end cap and flushed the line of root and other built up matter. Then I had to use a wire to dig out each hole, 100 holes to each line, 80 lines. These lines were only buried a foot deep in pea gravel. Relative easy job when no grass was allowed to grow. I don't even let clumping type grass like tall fescue and orchardgrass grow on my drain field....James


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

We have deeper rooted big bluestem and other prairie grasses, gtowing over our drainfield which is relatively shallow too. No plugging problems. The soil above a properly designed and sized drainfield that is not overloaded, should have no more moisture in it than in the surrounding soil. Sand filters at wastewater treatment plants get a lot more water per square foot than a residential drainfield, there is really no comparison.

I've seen tests done by the University where they've discharged water into perforated drainfield pipe at the same rate that would be coming out of a septic tank after someone pulls the plug on a full bathtub. Guess what? All the water flowed out of the first foot or so of perforations in the pipe. The U concluded that most of the perforated pipe in a drainfield trench never sees water! Nearly all the water distribution within the trench occurs by the water flowing through the rock, not thru the perforation pipe. Of course, this would be true for a gravity-fed septic field. The sand filter at a wastewater plant uses pressure distribution where the entire distribution pipe sees water.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I think mine gets discharged into the drainfield on the surface under some kind of chambers.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

fishhead said:


> I think mine gets discharged into the drainfield on the surface under some kind of chambers.


So does ours.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Seems like I read something that cautioned doing this if residents are taking heavy drugs. My memory says it had to do with heavy metals. I might be wrong.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

logbuilder said:


> Seems like I read something that cautioned doing this if residents are taking heavy drugs. My memory says it had to do with heavy metals. I might be wrong.


I won't be eating the berries.


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## zukgod (Jan 28, 2007)

They will be fine, we farm raspberry plants. The roots are very shallow so you will be just fine. I don't think I have ever found a root more than 16inches deep and we have nothing but sand so they could go to china if they wanted. And enjoy the berries water flows down hill you won't be getting anything from your septic in the fruit.


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