I bought a small avocado plant last year from a nursery in Monza and put it in a large pot on my south-facing balcony. Last winter it got hit pretty hard by the cold (we dropped to -5°C) and now it's struggling to bounce back. I was wondering if it's really feasible to grow it here in Lombardy or if I'm just wasting time and money.
Avocado is a tropical plant that suffers when temperatures drop below 10-12°C, so -5°C really hurt it and that frost stressed it out quite a bit. It's doable in Milan but you need to treat it like a plant that needs protection: in summer on the balcony in the sun is fine, but from October onwards bring it inside the house (next to a bright window) until March/April, otherwise it risks getting damaged every single winter. If the plant is really weakened right now it could take a couple of seasons to bounce back properly, but that's not wasted time - with the right care you can definitely grow it in Lombardy, it's just not a "leave it outside" kind of plant like a lemon tree.
With temperatures like the ones you get in Milan during winter, that plant was really traumatized by the -5°C. If you want to try saving it, move it inside the house or into a conservatory during the cold months - that's the only serious option, otherwise you risk starting from scratch every year. Pots on the balcony, even ones facing south, won't be enough to protect it when frost hits.
The plant will probably recover, but it depends on how much the cold damaged the roots: if you still see some green leaves and the stem isn't completely dried out, there's hope. What nobody mentions though is that even if it survives, you're going to have a hard time getting it to actually fruit on a Milan balcony - it'll grow, but fruiting is another story because it needs much hotter and longer summers than what you get. If your only goal is to have a decorative plant that's alive, then yeah, it's doable, but moving it inside during winter is mandatory, not optional.
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