Plant Manual for Thornless Loganberry

If your plant has been grown in a greenhouse, here are a few steps we recommend you follow:

• After purchasing your plant, place it outside in a sheltered, shady spot or on your back porch.
• Leave it there for 3-4 hours and gradually increase the time spent outside by 1-2 hours per day.
• Bring the plants back indoors each night.
• Water it regularly to keep the plant moist.
• Occasionally spray the leaves with water.
• After 2-3 days, move the plants from their shady spot into morning sun, returning them to the shade in the afternoon.
• After 7 days, the plants should be able to handle the outdoor temperatures, if they stay around 50 degrees F.
• After 7-10 days, your plant is ready to be planted in its permanent location. Try to do this on a cloudy day and be sure to water the plant well.
• Observe foliage daily. If any type of leaf discoloration occurs, put the plant back into filtered light and attempt this step at a later date.
• Special care must be taken to avoid burning the leaves.

These are general guide recommendations. Some plants take longer than others to acclimate.

Cross-Pollination

Is a pollinator variety present? Cross-pollination by a different variety, of the same type of plant, is key to the success of many plants. In most cases, its absence is why the plant doesn’t bear fruit or produces poorly. Most berry plants are self-pollinating, but for a larger fruit and crop plant more than one variety.

Sun and Good Soil

Your plant would love a sunny place with well-drained, fertile soil. But it will be quite satisfied with six to eight hours of sunlight. Good drainage is required to keep your plant “happy.” If your soil has high clay content, use our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium or add one-third peat to the soil at planting time. We do not recommend planting in heavy, pure clay soils.

Even if your yard isn’t the most ideal location, take heart. Most berry plants are very adaptable and respond well to fertilizers, so they can get along well even where the soil is nutritionally poor. Just steer clear of sites with extremely heavy soils or very poor drainage.

Space for Future Plantings

Once you’ve found out about fruit growing goodness firsthand, you’ll want to expand your home orchard. It’s important to plan so that the future growth areas will be ready when you are.

Before Planting

Before you plant, check your soil pH. Contact your local County Extension Office for information about soil testing in your area, or purchase one of our digital meters for quick and accurate results. Loganberries grow best with a soil pH between 6.0-6.7. They love rich soil, well-drained loams and brick earth.

Planting Tips

• Loganberries prefer sun or partial shade, sheltered out of strong winds.
• Space your plants 1-2 feet apart.
• After planting, water your loganberry thoroughly.
• Fertilize with our Stark® Raspberry Food. (If planting in the fall, wait to fertilize until spring for best results.)
• Keep the soil moist until the plant becomes established.

Additional Notes

• Loganberry is a cross between blackberry and red raspberry.
• No pruning is required at planting time.
• Loganberry plants should be given very good care the first year.
• Loganberries do not have strong growth until the fall months, when their growth is very rapid. In the fall, good strong trellises should be provided.

When To Prepare Your Soil

Soil preparation can be done at any time that the ground is not too wet or frozen. Your trees may be planted even when temperatures are quite cool. If a hard frost is expected, it is advisable to delay planting for a while until temperatures become more moderate. Generally, as long as your soil is workable, it is fine to plant.

How To Prepare Your Soil

• Roots grow faster when they’re spread out. Dig the hole deep and wide enough so the root system has plenty of room to easily expand. Keep the topsoil in a separate pile so you can put it in the bottom of the hole, where it’ll do the most good.

• To loosen the soil, mix dehydrated cow manure, garden compost or peat moss (up to 1/3 concentration) into your pile of topsoil. Make sure the peat moss you get is either baled sphagnum or granular peat. You can also add our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium or 2 or more inches of organic material and work in evenly with the existing soil.

Your lawn can provide you with ideal organic materials such as grass clippings and shredded leaves. Not only will the grass and leaves break down to provide soil nutrients, but they will help loosen the soil as well. You can gather these in the fall with spring planting in mind.

Common soil amendments:

• compost
• sand
• manure
• lime
• peat moss
• sawdust

Adding organic materials, such as our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium and compost will improve most every soil type. Organic materials bind sandy soil particles so they retain moisture and nutrients better. They also break apart clay and silt particles, so that water can infiltrate and roots can spread.

Soil Types

• Clay and silt soils are made of very small particles. They feel slick and sticky when wet. Clay and silt hold moisture well, but resist water infiltration, especially when they are dry. Often puddles form on clay or silt soils, and they easily become compacted.

• Loam soil is a mix of sand, silt or clay, and organic matter. Loam soils are loose and look rich. When squeezed in your fist, moist loam will form a ball, which crumbles when poked with a finger. Loam soils normally absorb water and store moisture well. Loam soils can be sandy or clay based, and will vary in moisture absorption and retention accordingly.

• Sandy soils contain large particles that are visible to the unaided eye, and are usually light in color. Sand feels coarse when wet or dry, and will not form a ball when squeezed in your fist. Sandy soils stay loose and allow moisture to penetrate easily, but do not retain it for long-term use.

Verticullium Wilt

Infected areas will have yellowing foliage, slowed growth, large seed production and death of branches. New canes will often wilt.

Natural Control

• Plant only certified berries, destroy infected plants, DO NOT plant in same location.
• Plant should receive plenty of water to promote growth and avoid stress.

Other Control Options

• Consult County Extension Agent

Powdery Mildew

Whitish-gray powdery mold or felt like patches on leaves and green twigs. Leaves may crinkle and curl upward. Over winters in fallen leaves.

Natural Control

• Serenade® Garden Disease Control

Crown and Cane Gall

Plants appear stunted and slow growing, leaves may be reduced in size, little or no fruit. If plant is dead, inspect roots for hard, woody tumors. Note: many things can cause stunted plants.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent

Leafhopper

Small, active, slender-winged insects, various colors, usually found on underside of leaves, similar to aphids. Retard growth, leaves become whitened, stippled or mottled. Tips may wither and die. This insect carries virus of certain very harmful plant diseases.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent

Cutworm

Large (vary from ½ -2” long) fleshy, hairless caterpillars. Adult cutworms are dark, night flying moths with bands or stripes on their forewings and lighter color hind wings. Some feed on the stems, others feed on new tender growth. Cutworms feed at night and can destroy a new plant over night.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent

Armyworm

Newly hatched worms are white with black heads. Mature worms are light tan or dark brown with dark or orange back and side stripes. The feed on the leaves of plants.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Captain Jack’s™ Deadbug Brew

Aphids

They are the size of a pinhead and vary in color depending on the species. Cluster on stems and under leaves, sucking plant juices. Leaves then curl, thicken, yellow and die. Produce large amounts of a liquid water called “honeydew”. Aphid sticky residue becomes growth media for sooty mold.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent

Mites

Pinpoint size, many different colors. Found on undersides of leaves. Severe infestations have some silken webbing. Sap feeding causes bronzing of leaves.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent

Leafroller

Pale yellow or ‘dirty’ green worms. Leaves are rolled and webbed together where insects feed. Eventually becomes ‘skeletonized’.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Captain Jack’s™ Deadbug Brew

Leaf and Cane Spot

Small red-bordered spots appear on new leaves, canes and occasionally on fruit. These spots will grow and eventually the infected piece will fall out, leaving a hole in the leaf.

Natural Control

• Destroy infected leaves and canes.
• Serenade® Garden Disease Control

Orange Rust

Leaves are dwarfed and undersides covered with large powdery masses of orange colored spores. Young shoots appear spindly and elongated.

Natural Control

• Affected plants should be destroyed as soon as possible.
• Serenade® Garden Disease Control

Pruning Tips

• Do not prune a loganberry bush for the first year after it is planted.
• In the following years, as soon as harvesting has finished, cut down the 2 year old canes to ground level and prune the new canes back to approximately 8 inches high.
• Prune for good air and light circulation.
• Remove any dead or disease branches during the growing season to prevent the diseases from spreading to other plants.

Before you begin, read and follow all instructions on labels.

Natural Control

When To Spray

At the First Sign of:

• Serenade® Garden Disease Control for powdery mildew, rust and leaf spot.

• Bonide® Captain Jack’s™ Deadbug Brew for armyworms and leafrollers.

When to Harvest

Loganberries will produce fruit the first season after planting. There will be crops of firm, deep red berries from August to September. Berries do not pull free from their core when picked, so you can’t use this to gauge the ripeness of the fruit.

The annual average yield per plant is about 10 pounds.

Storage

They will keep for a few days in the refrigerator or freeze for later use.