Shrub · Rosaceae
Loganberry
Rubus × loganobaccus
Hand it full sun, rich soil, and a solid trellis, and the loganberry serves up tart-sweet fruit all summer.
Full sun
Every 5–7 days
USDA 5–9
5–7 ft · 1.5–2 m
Overview
So what is it, exactly? The loganberry's a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry, bred way back and grown ever since for its big, deep red fruit. It's part of the rose family, right alongside its bramble cousins, and just like a blackberry it hangs onto its core when you pick it. Flavor-wise it lands between its two parents, sharper than a raspberry but richer than a blackberry.
It grows as a trailing perennial, sending out long, fast canes that would rather climb a fence or trellis than stand up on their own. The plant sticks around for years, but the canes run on a two-year plan: they grow one season, fruit the next, and then they're spent. Get that rhythm down and pruning suddenly makes sense.
This one's for the open garden, hardy through USDA zones 5 to 9 and happiest with space to sprawl. It's not fussy, but it doesn't love a hard freeze, and it'll turn into a thicket if you let the cane tips root wherever they land. Give it a sheltered, sunny spot and keep an eye on those canes, and it'll more than earn its place.
Care
The short version: full sun, rich well-drained soil, and a steady 1 to 2 inches of water a week. Guide the canes up a trellis, feed it in early spring, and just cut out each cane the year after it's fruited.
Light
You'll get the best crop in full sun, and that's where the berries sweeten up too. It'll put up with a bit of partial shade, but the shadier it sits, the fewer and smaller the berries you'll end up picking.
Water
Give it 1 to 2 inches of water a week, and bump that up while it's flowering and the fruit's filling out. Keep the soil moist but not soggy, because these canes really can't stand sitting in waterlogged ground.
Soil
Get it into rich, well-drained loam with lots of organic matter mixed in. A slightly acidic pH between 5.5 and 6.5 is what it likes best, and decent drainage keeps the roots happy.
Temperature
It's pretty tough, handling anywhere from about 5°F to 86°F (-15°C to 30°C), which lands it in USDA zones 5 to 9. Still, hard cold gets to it, so give the canes some shelter or a cover where winters really bite.
Humidity
Regular outdoor humidity in the 40% to 70% range is totally fine, so don't sweat it. What really counts is airflow, since still, damp air around crowded canes is exactly what gray mold and purple blotch are after.
Feeding
Feed it in early spring as the new growth kicks off, using a nitrogen-rich balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 and finishing with a bit of compost. Just one seasonal feed is plenty to push out a strong batch of canes.
Pruning
Pruning just follows the cane cycle, so it's not complicated. Cut the old floricanes that just fruited right down to the ground after harvest, train the fresh primocanes onto the trellis, then tidy and tie it all in over late winter.
Repotting
This is a ground plant, so it barely ever needs a pot. If you do grow one in a container, refresh it or move it up every 1 to 2 years in late winter, and keep an eye out for roots circling the pot or water running straight through.
Size & spacing
Plants get to 5 to 6.5 feet (150 to 200 cm) tall and spread a good 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3 m) wide along the trellis. Those long trailing canes love to run, so give them the room.
When to plant
The loganberry goes by the seasons outside, not some indoor schedule. Set young plants out in early spring once the hard frost's done, or in late fall if your winters are on the mild side. It'll bloom in late spring, and the fruit shows up from late June through August.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Early spring after the danger of hard frost has passed, or late fall in mild-winter regions
- Harvest: Blooms late spring; harvest late June through August
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 5–9
Temperature: down to -29°C
Troubleshooting
Here's the thing: nearly all loganberry trouble turns up on the canes or the ripening fruit, and damp weather is usually the culprit. Spot it early and you can step in before it works its way down the row. Find what matches below, then deal with it while it still helps.
Purple-brown blotches creeping along the canes
Those spreading marks? That's purple blotch, a fungus that settles on the canes and moves quickest when it's wet and things are crowded. It starts small around the nodes, then the spots swell up and run together. Cut out the infected canes, thin the rest so air can get through, and only bother with a labeled fungicide if it really digs in.
Fix:
- Prune out and destroy infected canes
- Thin canes to open the canopy
- Apply a labeled fungicide if infection is severe
Soft berries wearing a gray fuzzy coat
That fuzzy gray coat is gray mold, and botrytis is behind it, taking hold in damp, humid spells right as the fruit ripens. The berries go soft and then flop under the fuzz. Pick off and toss anything infected, harvest ripe fruit often so it doesn't sit around, and open the canopy up so the berries dry off quick.
Fix:
- Remove and discard infected fruit
- Harvest ripe berries promptly and frequently
- Improve airflow around the canopy
Canes that stay brown and won't leaf out in spring
Trailing brambles like the loganberry feel the cold, so a rough winter can leave you with dead canes even when the crown down below makes it through. Look for brown, brittle wood that snaps instead of bending. Cut those dead canes back to live tissue or the ground, and in cold spots mulch the crown and lower or cover the canes before winter rolls in.
Fix:
- Prune dead canes back to live tissue or the ground
- Protect canes over winter in cold sites
Toxicity
Got pets or little ones? No worries here, because the loganberry isn't poisonous at all. You can eat the berries and handle any part of the plant without a second thought. The only real catch is physical, since the standard canes have sharp prickles, so pull on gloves before you prune and go for a thornless kind if scratches bug you.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
Totally safe to have around. A cat that nibbles a leaf is fine, though the prickles on thorned canes can scratch a curious nose.
Dogs None
Nothing toxic here, so a dog can share a few ripe berries. Wolf down a big pile of leaves and it might get a passing upset stomach, but that's about it.
Horses Safe
Horses can graze near the canes without any trouble. The thorns are all you've got to watch, since a sharp prickle can scratch the muzzle.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits can browse the leaves and fruit as much as they like. There's nothing poisonous in it, so it counts as safe forage.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, goats, and sheep can graze the foliage with zero risk of poisoning. The stems do have prickles, so the thorns are really the only worry.
Birds Safe
Birds love the ripe berries and come to no harm from them. They help themselves to the crop and scatter the seed as they go.
People Safe
The berries are a treat fresh or cooked, and the whole plant is safe. The thorns on standard forms are the only thing that bites back, so glove up when you prune.
Thorned forms bear sharp prickles that can scratch pets and handlers, while thornless cultivars exist; wear gloves when training or pruning canes.
Varieties
There aren't many loganberry types to sort through, and honestly it mostly comes down to whether the canes have thorns. Here are the two you'll probably run into.
Thornless Loganberry (L654)
Its smooth, spineless canes make picking and training a whole lot easier than the thorned type.
Loganberry LY59
This is the standard thorned, heavy-cropping clone that growers have raised commercially for years.
Companions
The loganberry shares soil diseases with a few common crops, so the smarter move is knowing what to keep it away from rather than what to plant beside it.
Keep apart
Solanaceous crops (tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant): Share Verticillium wilt; avoid planting brambles where these crops recently grew
Wild brambles: Can harbor viruses and diseases that spread to cultivated canes
How to propagate
Making more loganberries? That's the easy part, because the plant pretty much handles it for you once a cane tip touches down on the soil.
LayeringEasy
Late summer to early fall · Roots in about 4 to 8 weeks; transplant the rooted tip the following spring
Tip-layering is the go-to way to make more trailing brambles, and it's about as easy as it gets. In late summer or early fall, bend a growing cane tip down and bury it in the soil, and it'll root in about 4 to 8 weeks. Just leave it be, then lift the rooted tip to its new spot the following spring.
Stem cuttingsModerate
Summer (softwood) or late winter (hardwood) · Several weeks to a few months to root and establish
Cuttings aren't as common as tip layering, but they work great for bulking up the thornless clones. Take softwood cuttings in summer or hardwood ones in late winter, and give them several weeks to a few months to root and settle before you call them established.
Myths
A loganberry is basically just a raspberry.
Not quite. It's a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry, and it hangs with the trailing blackberries rather than the raspberries. Like a blackberry, it holds onto its core when you pick the fruit, and that's the quickest way to tell them apart.
Every loganberry plant comes with thorns.
Nope, since there are both thorned and thornless cultivars out there, so prickles aren't a given. Choose a spineless form and the picking and pruning get much easier, with no sharp canes to wrestle with.