The canker is very obvious by the fall. In October and November, the canopies of vines that have been girdled by the canker prematurely display fall colors and are easily distinguished from healthy vines. A closer examination of these vines reveals a canker on the young trunk that is very apparent. The trunk is slightly larger where the canker occurs, appears puffy, and may feel spongy compared to healthy tissue. Using a knife to cut into the canker exposes discolored and dead tissue.
Black spores are abundant within the canker and sometimes visible on the surface of the canker.
Callous tissue is often associated with the canker as the vine attempts to repair the damage with new tissue. Aspergillus Vine Canker is rather rare. It has been identified in only a handful of cases over the past ten years. Cankers were 4 to 12 inches in length and affected anywhere from a small fraction of the shoot's cross sectional area to completely girdling the shoot. Shoots usually healed and grew normally when less than half of the cross sectional area had been killed by the canker.