Berry patch over a drainfield

Hi Blake, Thanks for making yourself available to answer some questions. Could you make recommendations for berry plants or other shallow rooted plants that would be compatible with a drainfield area? The obvious ones to me are blueberries or strawberries, as these are very shallow rooted, however I wonder about other berries. Some people say raspberries, though in my experience they have rather aggressive root systems. Others such as grapes I believe have very extensive root systems and might not be good choices.

I know there will be a lot of people that recommend against planting any food crop over a drain field due to toxins, however its a new drainfield I installed myself, so I know everything going into it is more or less organic. Also, the point is to keep the roots at the surface and out of the perf pipes and drain rock anyway.

For us, our drainfield (plus margins and reserve) occupies over 1/4 acre of otherwise prime full sun area relatively near our house.

Thanks!

I found this single note about the subject
"I planted blueberry bushes over our new drain field ten years ago. Their roots only go down about a foot.
If they were deeper, the bushes would have died by now, since they are very sensitive to bleach in the laundry effluent.
So far, so good."

From my perspective, the two big concerns are:

1 - Planting things that intrude into, block up, or damage the equipment in the septic field. That is a very, very expensive mistake.

2- Ensuring that the produce cannot be accidentally contaminated by black water components. E.Coli is perfectly organic, along with a host of other lovelies. Strawberries on a septic field? Thanks, I'll pass.

Personally, I would grow tons of grassy biomass over the field, harvest and compost it, and use that to feed the soil in my food growing areas. Perfectly practical and quite safe.

Along with the other concerns, it's worth protecting the drain field so no one ends up parking on it.

How about a pollinator garden?