🍇 Loganberry Pruning: What Most Gardeners Get Wrong

🌱 Introduction: Why Loganberries Cause So Much Confusion

Loganberries are vigorous, productive hybrids (blackberry × raspberry), and they’re very easy to prune incorrectly. Most problems — tangled canes, poor crops, or plants getting out of control — come from treating loganberries like either raspberries or blackberries, instead of understanding how they actually grow.

Get the pruning wrong, and you’ll lose fruit or end up with chaos. Get it right, and loganberries are easy to manage and incredibly productive.

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🌳 How Loganberries Grow (The Rule Most People Miss)

Loganberries fruit on two-year-old canes, just like blackberries:

• Year 1: New canes grow (primocanes) — no fruit
• Year 2: Those canes fruit (floricanes) — then die

❌ Fruited canes will never fruit again
✔️ New canes are next year’s crop

👉 Pruning is about removing the old and training the new, every single year.

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❌ What Most Gardeners Get Wrong

❌ 1. Not removing fruited canes

Leaving old canes in place causes:

• Tangled growth
• Disease build-up
• Shading of new fruiting canes

Fix: Fruited canes must be removed completely.

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❌ 2. Keeping too many new canes

More canes does not mean more fruit.

Too many canes cause:

• Smaller berries
• Poor airflow
• Weak growth

Fix: Fewer, stronger canes give better crops.

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❌ 3. Not training canes early

Letting canes sprawl on the ground leads to:

• Knots and tangles
• Broken growth
• Difficult pruning later

Fix: Tie in canes while they’re young and flexible.

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❌ 4. Treating loganberries like raspberries

Cutting everything down (raspberry-style) removes next year’s crop entirely.

Fix: Only fruited canes are removed — never all canes.

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❌ 5. Pruning at the wrong time

Winter-only pruning or random cutting causes confusion and lost yield.

Fix: Prune at the correct stages through the year.

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⏰ When to Prune Loganberries (UK Guide)

🌞 After fruiting (main prune)

Best time: Late summer to early autumn

• Fruited canes are easy to identify
• New canes are visible and flexible

This is the most important pruning window.

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❄️ Late winter (tidy and shape)

Best time: January–February

• Final shaping
• Shorten side shoots
• Remove any missed dead canes

Avoid pruning during hard frosts.

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✂️ How to Prune Loganberries Correctly (Step by Step)

1️⃣ Remove all fruited canes at ground level

After harvest:

• Cut every cane that carried fruit right down to the base
• These canes are brown, woody, and often brittle

Leaving them is the biggest mistake gardeners make.

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2️⃣ Select the best new canes

From this year’s growth:

• Keep 4–6 strong, healthy canes per plant
• Remove thin, weak, or excess shoots

Quality beats quantity.

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3️⃣ Train new canes onto supports

• Tie canes onto wires or a trellis
• Space them evenly
• Keep them off the ground

Training now prevents a tangled mess later.

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4️⃣ Shorten side shoots (late winter)

• Cut side shoots back to 2–3 buds
• Concentrates fruit close to the main cane
• Makes harvesting easier

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🧵 Best Training System (And Why It Matters)

A simple wire system works best:

• Old (fruiting) canes trained one way
• New canes trained the opposite way

This makes it obvious what to cut each year and almost eliminates mistakes.

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🌱 Young vs Established Loganberry Plants

🌱 First year

• Focus on training
• Don’t worry about fruit
• Build structure

🌿 Established plants

• Annual removal of fruited canes
• Careful selection of new canes
• Regular tying-in

Early discipline = easy pruning for life.

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🍇 How Correct Pruning Improves Crops

Correct pruning:

• Improves airflow and light
• Reduces disease
• Produces larger berries
• Makes harvesting far easier
• Keeps plants manageable

Messy plants are nearly always poorly pruned plants.

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🧠 Key Takeaway

What most gardeners get wrong with loganberries is simple:
They don’t remove fruited canes and they don’t train new growth early enough.

Remember this rule every year:

• Old canes out
• Best new canes kept
• Growth trained early

Do that, and loganberries stop being difficult and start being one of the easiest, most productive soft fruits you can grow.

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