Green Color Fades at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

Following pollination, the developing green berry remains very small for about 90 days (more or less depending on whether it is a cool or warm region). The berry then starts to swell. At this time it contains about 3% sugar and approximately the same amount of acid. Thereafter, the green color fades, red varieties begin to develop a red or purple color, and white varieties start to turn a yellow or russet color. The sugar content increases steadily, and the acidity decreases. The warmer the region the faster the accumulation of sugar and the more rapid the decrease in acidity and the less the development of a red color.

Mixing two primary colors in equal proportion results in the formation of the secondary colors - orange, violet, and green. When a primary color is mixed with an adjacent secondary color, a tertiary color - such as red-violet or blue-green - is produced. Seeing colors as spokes of a wheel enables you to see how one color relates to another.

Among the varieties of chalcedony, carnelian, or sard, is red or brownish-red; chrysoprase, apple-green; prase, a dull, darker green; plasma, leek green or emerald green; and bloodstone, dark green with small red spots, like drops of blood. Agate, a chalcedony with delicate parallel bands of color, or irregularly clouded color effects, is white, red, brown, or blue. Moss agate contains mosslike forms caused by oxide of manganese. In onyx, the differently colored bands are straight and parallel. Sardonyx is onyx containing bands of carnelian (sard).