Any conclusive evidence regarding tomato plants and septic lines?

[harleysilo]

So my tomato row (60') runs slightly downhill in my back yard, directly W to E.

The far west uphill side always dies out and produces less than the downhill east side. The reason??? The very end or our two septic field lines end where the row is. In the dead of summer you can see two green lines in our yard directly over the field lines, ending at the tomato row.

So the other day, I halved my row, and then re-installed three new posts creating 2 30' rows about 7' apart. Now all my tomatoes will benefit from the special stuff lying below....

Any problem with this other than no watering/fertilizing by me this summer?

It's not as if sewage is just lying on the ground and splashing all over the place, they're at least 4' deep, well 4' down you hit gravel...lines somwhere under that.

[harleysilo]

[harleysilo]

[Dewayne mater]

How has this worked out for you? I have a similar situation and need to figure this out. I wouldn't want to have unwanted bacteria, etc. get into the tomatoes. I'm guessing the answer is totally dependent on your circumstances. (how deep is the field, what is the soil around it, what is the path of travel of liquids through that field, how much water is going through the septic, etc.)

[harleysilo]

Funny you should ask today. I'm ripping everything out this very minute. Not because it didn't work out , just to change the rows position. In the picture above they were at 90 degrees to the line, next year I'll do one row directly over the first septic line. My lines are 4' deep, and drainage is very good. The area is slopped slightly as well. I don't see anything wrong with what I'm doing. Now if I had sludge bubbling out up into the yard I'd think differently. Or if the area was flat of bowl shaped and I lived in an area with so much rain the ground was saturated a lot.

[harleysilo]

Originally I chose that direction because it was less intrusive in the yard, and it was oriented east west. Now it will be north south but over constant water/ nutrients....