Siberian cultivates exotic fruits like passionfruit and 300-gram mandarins at home

76-year-old Novosibirsk resident Nikolai Shabelnikov grows tropical and subtropical fruits in his apartment. On his balcony, he has mandarin, lemon, as well as fig and even passionfruit. In summer, he plants some of them outside — in the recreation area «Utinaya Zavod» (Duck Backwater), which he has been caring for for many years. He gives the ripe fruits to the children of his neighbors in the yard, who help him with public works. Journalists from NGS talked with the Novosibirsk resident about the tropical garden in a standard house, the difficulties of pollinating tropical plants, and Thailand in the heart of Siberia.

Nikolai Shabelnikov has been growing fruits at home for about 30 years. All his fruit-bearing trees are grown from seeds.

«When, so to speak, the borders opened, people started bringing me fruits, and I tried growing them at home. I started with dragon fruit (pitaya or pitahaya. — Ed.): I planted and grew whole piles of dragon fruits, gave them away. And then I started reading literature: how it grows, what conditions are needed. And gradually, gradually, I came to a serious hobby. So that not only the plant exists, but also the fruit,» the Siberian said.

Although he is not a native Siberian — he was born in Alekseyevka, Belgorod Region, in a family of a war veteran. He moved to Novosibirsk in 1972, and in 1987 chose Nizhnyaya Yeltsovka for living because it is surrounded by forest on all sides.

According to Nikolai Shabelnikov, he has had a pull towards living nature all his life. By profession, he is a geodesist-surveyor, spent a lot of time among forests and steppes, in the north and east: Sayany, Raduzhny, Nefteyugansk, Purpe, Tarko-Sale. And he always observed plants and animals with interest and respect.

«Here, among the forest, I found myself in my element,» said Nikolai Shabelnikov about his neighborhood. «At 70, I finished work and seriously started doing exactly what I do, what my soul is drawn to: planting plants, growing flowers, making beautiful flower beds. I also take care of injured animals. Every year, injured ducks stay to winter with us: they break a wing, or bump into something. I»m with them from morning till evening. In winter, when the frosts are –30 degrees Celsius (–22°F), in the morning I break the ice hole, in the evening I break it, because the water in the river freezes. And feeding in the morning and evening,« lists the Siberian.

Also, every spring, a tamed black kite comes to him, and the man feeds it fish from his balcony. He fishes right there, in the river. In other words, the home garden is only one side of the man«s active life.

The oldest tree of Nikolai Nikolayevich is a date palm, it is 33 years old. However, it has never borne fruit yet. But lemons, mandarins, figs, and even passionfruit bear fruit regularly and actively.

«27 years ago, we were eating a mandarin, and I decided: good mandarin, tasty, need to plant the seeds. I planted them in pots. They grew, I gave all [the sprouts] away, kept for myself the worst one, all broken — in short, a runt. And now it has been growing with me for 27 years. First, I took it out to the balcony in the room, and then to this winter garden of mine. And last year it bloomed, there were 12 fruits,» told Nikolai Shabelnikov.

Before the New Year, he picked one of the fruits from the branch and gave it to the editorial office. The mandarin weighed 285 grams (about 10 ounces), and the taste turned out bright and rich.

Lemons were brought to Nikolai Nikolayevich from Sochi. They said it was the «Ponderosa» variety, but they were wrong: «Ponderosa» gives bumpy fruits with thick skin, but the Siberian«s ripen with smooth thin skin.

«They taste sweet and sour. When there were seven of them, the largest weighed 240 grams (about 8.5 ounces). The year before last, there were 40 pieces, they were about 100 grams each (about 3.5 ounces). Last year — about 20 pieces, the biggest lemon was about 200 grams (about 7 ounces),» says Nikolai Shabelnikov.

Also, on his windowsill, he has a real fig tree, fig. Now almost all the branches of the plant are pruned: it«s necessary so that new fruits appear. Last year, according to Nikolai Shabelnikov, the plant produced about 50 fruits.

«I myself almost don»t eat these fruits, I myself love apples. I can eat apples as much as you want, and also plums, cherries. But here, I like the process itself: precisely to grow and give. I give everything to children and friends. Children are especially happy. They come, I give them scissors so they can cut it themselves,« he smiled.

Children help the Siberian at «Utinaya Zavod» — this is a green zone in Nizhnyaya Yeltsovka, which Nikolai Shabelnikov has been nurturing for many years. Ducks, muskrats, voles, and swallowtail butterflies live there.

The rarest fruit at home for Nikolai Nikolayevich is passionfruit, which was brought to him 16 years ago from Angola.

«I planted it, and when it first bloomed for me — and this is such a divine flower — I went to the botanical garden, took pollen, and pollinated it with a thin brush. So the first fruit set. And then I got a second passionfruit — it is self-pollinating, meaning no other plant is needed to get fruit. I also pollinate it with a brush,» explained the Siberian. «In spring, I planted it at the backwater. It started blooming there, and all people come and say: »Oh, we go to Thailand, but we have our own Thailand here.«»

However, outside, the fruits rarely ripen — children most often pick them while still green. But how can you forbid them.

In the entrance of the nine-story building where the amateur gardener lives, there is also his winter garden. For example, right near the garbage chute, avocado, yucca, and fan palm stretch upwards — these are also all pets of Nikolai Shabelnikov. As well as Christmas cactus, lantana, and many other plants.

In August 2025, NGS reported how the Siberian set up a farm in his apartment for growing habanero and jalapeño peppers.