Siberian man cultivates passion fruit and 300-gram mandarins

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 passion fruit. In summer, he plants some of them outside — in the «Utinaya Zavod» recreation area, which he has been tending for many years. He gives ripe fruits to the neighbors« children in the yard, who help him with public works. Journalists from NGS.RU spoke with the Novosibirsk resident about his tropical garden in a standard apartment building, the challenges 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 border 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 bunches of dragon fruit, gave them away. And then I started reading literature: how it grows, what conditions are needed. And gradually, gradually, it became a serious hobby. So that not only is there a plant, but also fruit,» the Siberian said.

Although he is not a native Siberian — he was born in Alexeyevka in the Belgorod Region, in a family of a war veteran. He moved to Novosibirsk in 1972, and in 1987 chose Nizhnyaya Yeltsovka to live in 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 surveyor-explorer, 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 with us for the winter: they break a wing or bump into something. I»m with them from morning till evening. In winter, when it«s –30 degrees (–22°F), I break the ice hole in the morning and in the evening, because the water in the river freezes. And feeding in the morning and evening,» the Siberian lists.

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

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

«27 years ago, we ate a mandarin, and I decided: a good mandarin, tasty, I should plant the seeds. I planted them in pots. They grew, I gave all [the sprouts] away, kept the worst one for myself, all broken — in short, a runt. And now it has been growing with me for 27 years. At 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,» said 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 g, and the taste turned out to be bright and rich.

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

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

Also on his windowsill grows a real fig tree, a 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 bore about 50 fruits.

«I myself almost don»t eat these fruits, I myself love apples. I can eat as many apples as I want, and also plums, cherries. But here I like the process itself: precisely growing and giving. I give everything to children and friends. Children are especially happy. They come, I give them scissors to cut 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 Nikolai«s home is passion fruit, which was brought to him 16 years ago from Angola.

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

However, outdoors the fruits rarely ripen — children most often pick them while still green. But you can«t really forbid them.

In the entrance of the nine-story building where the amateur gardener lives, there is also a winter garden. For example, right near the garbage chute, avocado, yucca, and fan palm stretch upward — these are also Nikolai Shabelnikov«s pets. As are the 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.