Seemingly healthy green plants may become variegated at any stage. There is no way to predict when a plant or its offspring will become variegated. As the disease progresses, the symptoms increase in intensity. White-streaked or fully yellowed leaves never regain a normal green color during the summer. Affected plants become dwarfed.
Fruit production is reduced considerably, with the fruit being small and of poor quality.
Affected plants never recover and usually die within two to three years. Permanent white streaks or sectors, with or without accompanying mottling symptoms, may occur in some cultivars affected by leaf variegation or June yellows. It occurs more commonly in some cultivars, for example, in Earliglow, than in others. The economic losses from leaf variegation are of two types. The first and most obvious is a reduction in productivity.