Every spring I get asked whether loganberries can really be grown in a pot, usually by someone with a paved yard who has fallen for that deep-red, slightly tart fruit but has nowhere for a proper berry bed. The honest answer is yes — but a loganberry is a vigorous beast, a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry (Rubus x loganobaccus, if you like the Latin), and it won't be quietly contained in a little patio tub. Give it room, a sturdy support and a bit of attention, and you'll be picking handfuls from mid-July through August.
Can you really grow loganberries in pots?
You can, and plenty of people do happily, but it pays to be realistic. A loganberry throws out long canes that reach two to three metres, and in open ground it'll spread as far as you let it. Confining the roots to a container restrains it a little, but the plant still wants to grow, so the pot is only half the story — the support and the pruning matter just as much.
The single best thing you can do is choose the right variety. I'd point anyone with a pot firmly towards LY654, the thornless loganberry. It's much easier to handle at close quarters — and you will be, threading canes onto a support on a small patio — and tends to be a touch less rampant than the old thorny LY59. That calmer habit is exactly what you want when space is tight. For the full picture on varieties and growing in the ground, my complete loganberry growing guide goes into more depth.
What size pot do loganberries need?
Big. Bigger than you're probably imagining. The most common mistake I see is someone potting a loganberry into a 30-litre tub, where it sulks and dries out constantly. A loganberry wants the largest container you can sensibly manage: I'd say 50 litres as an absolute minimum, and honestly a half-barrel is closer to ideal. The more compost you give the roots, the more buffer against drying out, and the better the plant performs.
Drainage is non-negotiable. Plenty of holes in the base, and I sit the pot up on feet or a couple of bricks so water runs away freely — loganberries hate waterlogged compost as much as going bone dry.
For the compost, don't reach for straight multipurpose. A plant that'll live in the same pot for years needs staying power, so I mix a loam-based John Innes No. 3 with a good multipurpose compost, roughly half and half. The John Innes gives weight, holds nutrients and won't collapse the way peat-free multipurpose can; the multipurpose keeps it open and free-draining. The weight is a bonus too — a tall, cane-laden loganberry gets top-heavy, and a heavy pot is less likely to blow over.
How do I support loganberry canes in a container?
This is where people come unstuck. Those long canes have to go somewhere, and left to flop they'll snap, tangle and shade out the fruit. Put a proper support in when you plant — adding one later, once the canes are growing, is a thankless job.
A sturdy obelisk pushed into the pot works beautifully and looks handsome on a patio; the canes spiral up around it. Or, if the pot stands against a wall, fix a fan of horizontal wires or a trellis and tie the canes in along them. Either way, train the canes onto the support as they grow, spreading them out so air and light get through. Loganberries are self-fertile, so you don't need a second plant for pollination — one well-trained specimen fruits perfectly well alone.
How often should I water and feed loganberries in pots?
Watering is the make-or-break of container loganberries. Pots dry out far faster than open ground, and a thirsty loganberry drops flowers and gives mean little fruit. In warm weather you'll be watering most days, sometimes morning and evening in a heatwave. Aim for consistently moist, never waterlogged — check by pushing a finger into the compost rather than guessing from the surface.
Feeding matters nearly as much, because a plant in a finite pot quickly exhausts what's there. Once growth gets going in spring I feed fortnightly with a balanced liquid feed right through to the season's end — a tomato feed is fine. On top of that I topdress every spring, scraping off the top few centimetres of tired compost and replacing it with fresh John Innes. That annual refresh keeps a long-lived container plant in good heart.
Pruning and overwintering
Pruning is your other main tool for keeping a pot loganberry manageable, and the logic is lovely and simple. Loganberries fruit on the previous year's canes — the floricanes — so each cane crops once and is then finished. After harvest, in late summer or autumn, cut the fruited canes right out at the base and tie in the fresh new canes grown that season; those are what fruit next year. Keeping old and new growth clearly separated makes the job painless. For more on technique and timing, I've written a companion piece on how to prune loganberries that publishes alongside this one.
As for winter, loganberries are fully hardy — rated RHS H6, so they shrug off a normal British winter. The catch with a pot is that the roots are far more exposed than in the ground, and it's the roots, not the canes, that are vulnerable. In a hard frost I move the container to a sheltered spot against a house wall, or wrap the pot in fleece to insulate the rootball. Stop feeding as the plant goes dormant and ease off the watering, but don't let the compost dry out completely.
What yield can I expect from a pot?
Let's be honest about it. A loganberry in a half-barrel will never out-crop one running free along a wall with its roots in open soil — there's simply less to draw on, and you're deliberately restraining it. So a container plant gives a more modest harvest, and that's fine. What you get is still plenty for fresh eating, a crumble or a batch of jam, from a plant that's earned its place where a sprawling open-ground berry would never fit.
That, to me, is the whole point of growing loganberries in pots. It's not the route to a glut — it's a way to enjoy a fruit you'd otherwise have no space for, right at arm's reach when you fancy a handful. Give it a big pot, a good support and steady watering, and it'll reward you year after year. Happy growing.
Loganberries are just one of many berries worth growing in a pot, and if you're weighing up containers, compost and watering more generally before committing to a particular fruit, my broader guide to container gardening for fruit covers the setup that works across strawberries, currants, blueberries and hybrid canes alike.
