I’ve been fooled by avocados that didn’t seem to want to ripen for ages, and then by the time they finally felt ready they were half-rotten inside. So a couple days ago I cut an avocado to test it. It was still so raw that I couldn’t even twist it apart.
What I’m wondering now is, will it continue to ripen after being cut, or will it just start to rot. I put it in a ziplock bag and left it on the counter. Two days later and I still can’t twist it open.
Anybody have experience with this?
I’ve always had good luck with avocados, are you buying them green and waiting until they get more blackish? I cut em open when blackish, still pretty firm but not hard. This prob isn’t helping at all 
This is basically what I do with good success usually. But this last bag of avos is giving me fits. They’ve been on my counter for over a week. It finally felt like I was almost bruising them when I squeezed, so I thought they might be another batch of tricksters, so I thought I would test one. Nope!
So I’m wondering now if I’ve ruined it by cutting it, or is there still a chance of it ripening?
It takes some practice to be able to feel an avocado and tell if it’s that perfect ripeness. If it’s firm when you squeeze it, it’s not ripe. If it has a little bit of give, it’s ideal. If it’s too firm, you can leave them at room temperature for a day or two and they will ripen. They will ripen in the refrigerator but at a much slower rate.
The problem with a cut avocado is that it begins to oxidize, like a potato or apple, but at a slower rate. It will likely be nasty brownish before it ever reaches a ripened state. I did read about someone who fried up underripe avocado and said it was edible like that but I’ve never tried it.
If you buy a week’s worth of avocados at a time, like I do, it’s wise to get them in various states of ripeness. I try to pick a lot where a few are just right and the rest are slightly underripe so by the time I get to day 7, the last one is perfect.
I think ruined, Sharon 
I have had duds before, ones that never softened also ones that had rotten areas. I do better with the loose ones than the bagged.
I was afraid of that 
I buy a lot of avocados; I would go on an avo fast if I thought it would help with weight loss, lol. Typically - in my semi-food desert - avos are available in two forms: 1) cheap small black ones that are almost invariably over-ripe, and 2) larger, unripe green ones that come in a net bag. I buy the green ones and leave them all out on the counter until they’re almost ripe, at which point I leave one out for the next day, and put the rest in the fridge until I want another. Usually works great, but as I mentioned in a previous post, these suckers have been sitting out for over a week and are almost as hard as the day I bought them, despite turning much darker. Frustrating!
“Duds” as @BlueViolet calls them, seems appropriate. I’ve bought some that remained so hard it was like trying to ripen a hand grenade and I gave up on them. My luck changed for the better when I started buying avocados from Aldi. They come bagged and labeled as AvoTerra out of California. They are a tad smaller than the typical avocado but they are absolutely consistent in quality and I’ve not found a dud yet. And they run me about 66 cents each as opposed to $1.00 each I was paying at the supermarket.
Yeah, they might be duds. It’s 30 miles to the nearest Aldi, and I have two local choices. I can pay $2 each at the smaller grocery store, or $1.33 each at Walmart. I need to move, I swear.
Not sure if this will be helpful, but this is what I do.
I usually split an avocado with my wife 5 days/week, so I buy 5 avocados on Saturdays. I buy them when they’re dark green/ speckled black in color, so, kinda sorta starting to ripen. When I get home I put them in the crisper drawer in my fridge, and I take 1 out to leave on counter/top of the fridge 24-30 hours before I plan on eating it.
They’re perfect every time.
If the seed isn’t developed enough they never ripen or they ripen and rot in one area while the rrest of the fruit is hard as a rock. This happens more often with the bagged mini avocados than large ones. 
Just my personal experience lends to this, your avocado is half-save-able - the side still totally undisturbed from the pit can in fact finish ripening, but the side lifted away from the pit would have to be cooked or something to be edible (it will not ripen). I would place it in a paper bag and leave it, the cut part will form a thin leathery layer you can cut right off when it ripens enough to eat. Hope this helps, for future needs to quickly ripen them overnight place it in a paper bag or drawer with a piece of fruit (ripe banana or apple, the gasses they put off ripen other fruits) 
The whole bag was like that. I ended up throwing them all away 
But that’s good advice for the future!
what you do is buy them firm, put them in a paper bag or in your pantry where it’s dark and they will ripen within 5 days. GUARANTEED!
Kinda late, but when i open one up that isn’t ripe, i just heat it in the oven for a couple minutes. It’s mostly fat, and softens right up.
I buy 12 per shopping trip most times, an assortment of more or less rip if possible. They go in the frig and come out depending on estimated ripening time. There’s a practice aspect. Over time you figure out which ones to buy and where to keep them.
