Wholewheat Sourdough Malfunction

I would let the sponge sit on the counter until it doubles rather than using a 6 hour clock - closer to 12 hours may the when it doubles.

2nd - whole grains are much more thirsty than white flour.  Your dough is very dry for that much whole grain in the mix, at 62% hydration, so when you manipulate it with stretch and folds it will tear instead of stretch so you can fold it.  I think once you get the hydration up to 80% (adding 90-95 g of water to the dough liquid) or so your problems with this will go away.  I would make this bread at 90% hydration.  I would also add a 1 hour autolyse to make sure the whole grains get wet and absorb the water properly.  Whole grains will ferment much faster than white dough so watch the dough and not the clock.  Leaving it out overnight may cause problems if the kitchen is too warm.

Happy SD baking

Some molasses contains sulfur dioxide to keep it from spoiling (fermenting).  Check your label to see whether it has sulfur dioxide.

The first step, feeding the starter, seems okay (but why did you add molasses at this time? No sweetener needed, the wild yeasts have enough food in the flour). Was the starter active after the six hours?

DBM is right about the hydration level. If you change a formula with white flour to whole wheat, you have to add 14 grams  more water for every 56.5 grams/1 oz whole grain flour you use.

You don't mention how you worked the final dough, but it principle it should have risen sufficiently overnight. How much growth did you expect? 1 1/2 times would be your (maximal) goal for an almost 100% whole wheat bread. If you start stretching a whole grain dough after an 8-12 hours rise, you can expect it to tear very easily.

S&F-ing it over a whole more day definitely beat the horse to death, therefore, after some more rise, the dough finally separated. Nothing more could happen overnight, there was no rising potential left.

If you had shaped the dough in the morning after the overnight bulk fermentation, your bread would probably have been fine. Breads that need such long bulk rising time, start out with a very small amount of starter (a few grams).

I would always advise you as a beginner to start out with a proven recipe, as they are many here at TFL, and not try to come up with your own. (I had my share of "bricks" when I started baking my own breads, but that was before TFL time, and I had no good instructions to guide me).

Happy baking

Karin

I see you are located in Cairo,Egypt. I would say that your "room temperature" may be a little different than mine in the higher latitudes of the Midwest,USA. Mine is running anywhere from 18-24C (65-75F). Your (probably) higher temp will have a tremendous impact on your preferment and bulk fermentation times. Ideal temp for yeast growth is about 28C (82F). You may need to either find a cooler location in your kitchen or add a little salt to the preferment to slow it down. I concur with NOT adding molasses to the preferment. Add it to when you are mixing the final dough. The preferment (the starter,water,flour mix) should be used while it is still active and bubbly. This may take only 3-4 hours at warm room temps.

Definitely add more water to your dough, mix lightly (it will be quite ugly) and let it sit for at least 30-45 minutes. It may be quite sticky but after it sits, it should be at the tacky stage.  This time allows the bran bits of the whole wheat to absorb water now rather than after you have baked it. Now is the time to knead or S&F a bit. Let it rise to almost double. At warm temps-this may take anywhere from 3-8 hours-depending on the activity of your starter.

If your experience has been that the dough is tearing apart in clumps with an almost hairy appearance to the edges,rather than because it is tight and tearing, this means that there has been way too much warm fermentation and the gluten molecules are actually breaking apart. When those bonds break, they release a water molecule so you have damp or wet dough. This dough will not make a loaf of bread.

Whole wheat is a whole different bread making experience than using AP flour. Rye is also totally different.Hot weather/tropical baking also has special considerations-esp when using natural levain (sourdough).

Have fun!

I bake in hot Tucson az.  I agree with what everyone else said. With whole what,  I'd suggest you use a stiff starter (2:1 flour to water ratio by volume) and same ratio in builds; more room for error due to slower fermentation.