Hello,

    On Saturday, I started a brand new starter.  It was a one/one mixture of flour and water (2 cups each), inoculated with apple peels.  It started bubbling and foaming quite early.  For the first few days I fed it every 12 hours (dump half, feed 1c water 1c flour), and before each feed the volume of the starter didn't change, but there would be a layer of liquid on top.  After doing some research, I realized that my starter was starving.  Since it wasn't practical to feed it more than every 12 hours, I tried dumping out half the starter and feeding with 1/2 to 2/3 cup water and 1 c flour.  This seemed to help, as my starter quit developing the liquid layer, and started expanding.  After 12 hours, it had not doubled, so I waited until 24 hours to feed it (dump half, add 2/3 c water and 1 c flour).  At that point it hadn't doubled, but I fed it anyway.  This morning (24 hours after last feed), I checked on it, and it had expanded by maybe 25%, but still not doubled.  So, I didn't feed it.  Am I missing something?  It smells gloriously of sourdough, its just not terribly active.  Should I go back to feeding 1c water 1c flour?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.