Landsberger Renette: Use, Taste & Cultivation

The 'Landsberger Renette' is a rather old variety that is particularly suitable for cooler high altitudes. If you can offer it an airy location and give it space to develop, you will get a good harvest with little maintenance.

The 'Landsberger Renette' is an apple variety that can enrich a garden with relatively little effort. The annual cut is necessary when space is limited. However, if you offer the variety an airy location on normal garden soil, the joy of delicious apples is hardly diminished by susceptibility to disease or yield problems. The 'Landsberger Renette' variety is particularly healthy as a standard tree and requires little work.

Apple variety 'Landsberger Renette': profile

fruit	medium to large; Greenish-yellow ground color with a little yellow-orange top color
the taste	sweet and sour, sweet winey
yield	high
harvest time	from September
maturity	from the end of October
shelf life	Good; Apples harvested early can be stored until the beginning of January
growth	medium to strong
climate	suitable for cool altitudes
diseases and pests	susceptible to apple scab on soil that is too dry; susceptible to powdery mildew on soil that is too wet

Origin and history of the apple

The apple variety 'Landsberger Renette' was grown around 1850 in Landsberg an der Warthe - in today's Poland - by a judiciary named Burchhardt. He used seeds from a tree of the variety 'Harberts Renette'. However, the second part of the parentage of this tree is so far unclear. From the seedlings received, Burchhardt selected a promising tree whose growth and taste appealed to him. Because of its low demands on the climate and the soil, the variety was often used, especially in difficult locations. In the long term, the name 'Landsberger Renette' prevailed. Even today, the tasty and rather undemanding apple variety is welcome in the gardens of hobby gardeners, enthusiasts and pomologists.

What does the 'Landsberger Renette' apple taste like?

The flesh of the 'Landsberger Renette' is yellowish-white, fine-celled and juicy. The taste is sweet and sour or is described as sweet and vinous. Stored fruits are sweet and crumbly.
The 'Landsberger Renette' apple is medium-sized to large, rounded and often somewhat irregular in shape. The basic color of the shell is greenish-yellow to white-yellow and the top color only touches yellowish-orange. The rusted lenticels are also more prominent here. The core house is rather large and spacious with strong cores.

Cultivation and care of the apple variety: special features

The 'Landsberger Renette' variety grows medium to strong and unfortunately more upright than horizontal. In the home garden, growth should be somewhat slowed down by a slow-growing rootstock: Rootstock M7 has proven itself here. The rootstock MM 111 is also well suited for slightly larger trees. On meadow orchards, cultivation can also take place on seedlings or on their own roots. However, the variety then grows tall and must be harvested with a ladder or picking devices. On the other hand, the old crown also forms a lot of overhanging and therefore richly fruiting wood.
The 'Landsberger Renette' can be trained in any desired form on a suitably selected rootstock: standard trees, half-stem trees and bush trees are possible. Only as a trellis it is not suitable.

The 'Landsberger Renette' makes little demands on its location, but on dry soil it tends to produce only small fruits and is easily attacked by apple scab. Conversely, very wet and heavy soils increase susceptibility to powdery mildew. The location should be open to the wind, preferably slightly elevated - this way leaf diseases are almost impossible. The 'Landsberger Renette' tolerates low average annual temperatures and frosty winters without complaint.

Fertilization is not normally necessary for this variety. Only on weak rootstocks like M7 or M26 is the application of a predominantly organic fertilizer like ours Plantura organic universal fertilizer to recommend.
Pruning of the 'Landsberger Renette' should focus on reducing vertical wood and promoting slanting shoots. The vegetative growth of leaves and shoots is slowed down by the formation of fruit wood. Excessive pruning can lead to total crop failure, which is why it is extremely important to use scissors every year. Pruning this strain too much will also result in erratic yields.
Because flowering occurs mid-early in the year, the varieties ‘Berlepsch‘, ‘Cox Orange‘, ‘James Grieve', 'clare apple' and 'gold parmesan' suitable pollinators.

Landsberger Renette: use and harvest

The harvest of the 'Landsberger Renette' begins in warm locations as early as September. The ripe fruits are ideal for storage, which can be done until the beginning of January if the humidity is medium and the temperature is low. Attention: If the fruit is stored too unripe, it can wilt in storage.
When ready to eat, the 'Landsberger Renette' is only picked from the tree from the end of October and can then be used immediately as a table apple. But the 'Landsberger Renette' can also be used as a kitchen apple for compote, baked apples, for sweet cider or apple wine and apple juice.

Careful planting means a good start to the young life of an apple tree. We explain this to you in our special article apple tree plants in 10 steps.