Ours normally take a week or more.

When you harvest an avocado, you should normally retain a small amount of attached branch -- doing so will help slow softening of the mature fruit so that you can store them a relatively long time in the fridge.

When you are testing for maturity, remove that small piece of stem -- just snap it out. If the fruit is mature, softening is usually complete in 7 to 10 days.

There are visual indicators of when the crop is ready; we go by that not the time of year because the time seems to vary.

You should see a deep brown skin on the exterior of the pit. There should also be a haze of waxiness on the skin, and the stem should be yellow.

The professionals in the groves near here look for that deep brown skin but they also have these tester gadgets that do a little core sample for oil content. Oil content determines flavor. The oil content goes up and up to a certain point then the curve flattens out. After a period of time at peak goodness, the oil goes rancid and the fruit is overripe and tastes nasty. A good visual indicator of over-ripeness are black fibers in the flesh.

Thanks for the replies. I hope to one day test jeans001a's suggestion to "retain a small amount of attached branch" to prolong the ripening process.

Hoovb, you mention a deep brown skin on the outside of the pit. Did you mean on the outer skin of the avocado? Otherwise we would need to cut the fruit open to see the color of the pits skin. Our stems are yellow and the green outer skin does seem to have dulled. (see photo)

A week ago the took a few more off and have then in a brown bag under the sink (with an apple in the bag as well). A week later they are still hard as a rock..

It it possible the tree is just not mature enough or the we have not fertilized it in the last couple years?

On a separate note we have a low hanging branch that almost touches the ground. Is there a better time of the year to trim this?

Thanks for your comments!

York

York, your Haas looks bumpier and thicker skin than my Haas. I live in the SFV. I sometimes cut off some avocados when still small mostly because I want some fruit, and also to get some before the squirrels do. It does take over a week to soften them. I don't think there is a problem of your tree not being mature enough. Mine started producing fruit 5 years after I planted in the ground from a 5-gal container; the tree was a thin whip at that time.

I cut branches off anytime of the year, but if the branch has fruit, wait until you harvest it before cutting the branch off.

No, not the skin, the outside of the pit (the seed) should be brown.

Yes, you have to sacrifice a fruit to find out, but as the tree matures you will eventually have so many, sacrificing a few isn't a problem.

You should fertilize regularly, but that's not going to affect how the fruit ripens or does not ripen. Fruit looks small to me, but maybe it is just the picture. Is the tree in full sun? Are you coastal or inland?

Have you checked the harvest date for your variety? That may help give you a more clear idea of when to start harvesting...

Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Facts

Here in nor cal hass has to stay on the tree for 18 months. did you harvest in september of the same year it flowered? or was that the following year?