The virus affects the overall health of the cherry tree, resulting in fruit that is smaller and lacking flavour. The fruit of sensitive cultivars may develop normally at first, but before being ready to harvest it stops maturing. Fruit remain ‘fire engine’ red and don’t progress to dark purple/mahogany/dark cherry colour. The fruit is not suitable for harvest. Overseas experience indicates that fruit symptoms vary in severity for all cultivars from season to season and from region to region. In cultivars with red or yellow fruit symptoms are milder than in dark fruited cultivars.