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dead grass over the leach fields?

15 years ago

I bought my house 2 years ago. It has a septic tank with the leach fields. It also has an irrigation system which I use every morning to water the lawn. I have been using something similar to the Scotts 4-step program to fertilize each year. I recently bought a mulching lawn mower, but previously I had been bagging.

But both last year and this year I have had the same problem. Where the septic and leach field is there are strips of dead grass. There will be a strip of brown grass, followed by a strip of green grass, followed by a strip of brown grass, etc.

The rest of the lawn around the house looks fine. This only happens where the septic system is. So I bought one of those kits that test PH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

I am not sure how accurate these are. But my PH looked fine, but my nitrogen and phosphorus were almost non-existant.

Any one have any ideas why this would happen?

Comments (6)

  • 15 years ago

    How far apart are the strips. The leach bed on the house I are buying consist of 4 100 foot lines running from the distribution box. Depending on the terrain and soil the individual lines may be from 15 to 20 feet apart. Bad soil, terrain or tress may make then further a part.

    The point is that the grass is always greener over the leach lines, but if it is very dry the grass between the line may die or become brown where it was not getting sufficient water.

  • 15 years ago

    They are definately not 15-20 feet apart. It looks more like 5 feet apart. It has not been very dry in Massachusetts this year. It has rained quite a bit. When it doesn't rain I use the irrigation system in the early morning. Also no other part of my lawn has dead spots like it does over the leach fields. I am stumped.

    Also I dug down about 5 inches the other day to get the soil sample to test it with the home test kit. The soil looked pretty good to me.

  • 15 years ago

    I am having the same problem here in Virginia. We just had our house built along with a new septic system. I planted grass in the spring and it all came up nice and then all of a sudden the grass OVER the lines died. I thought it had something to do with contaminated water going through the lines but the house was so new that the septic system was recently hooked up and the tank probably wasnt even full enough to the point where the water would be draining into the field yet. I asked around and was told that it was probably from when they dug the lines. You dig down into soil at the bottom of the trench that probably doesnt contain to many nutrients and when you fill it back in you disturb all the good soil. That was one theory that i kind of believe but it doesnt answer why the grass grew there in the first place and then died. I used a tall fescue and ive read that this particular grass doesnt grow real well the 1st year but the 2nd year it turns really green....How new is your septic field?

  • 15 years ago

    I have a similar issue in CT. I've been in the house for 10 years. It started last year. I pulled out the as built for the septic and fields and sure enough the grass died on top of the fields. Just tried a major replanting with lime and starter fertilizer last weekend. We'll see how it goes.

  • 6 years ago

    Since living by myself now my leach field gets brown and dry grass. The guy that cleans my tank said with fewer people living in the house now I’m not putting as much water in the system,could this be true? He did say though that at least your septic and leach field is doing its job well

  • 6 years ago

    The number of people using a leach bed definitely has an affect on the leach bed. I read somewhere recently one person uses about 65 gal. of water per day. 1 per 65, gal, 2 people 130 ect.


    Also a dish washer and a washing machine affects the leach bed. Have you got a new dish washer or clothes washer Another thing that affects the leach bed is teenagers. For some reason they seem to use more water than usual.