Discarding Sourdough Starter - No Discard Method Help

Hello, Breadmaking! I'm not sure whether or not you already have a stable starter on hand or if you are still in the process of making one. Assuming you are still making one, you need to wait until you have a stable starter before you can get it on a no-discard maintenance plan. A brand-new starter shouldn't be made using a no-discard method because it isn't yet populated by the right organisms in the proper balance. You don't want to consume the discard at this early stage and it wouldn't be practical to keep adding more flour and water to the culture without disposing of any because you'd soon have an unmanageably large amount of it. So, first, spend a week or two making a strong and healthy starter, accepting the fact that there will be some waste in these early stages. When the starter rises and peaks (generally considered to be at least doubling in volume – although some starters fall a bit short of doubling) within several hours of refreshment, and does so reliably for several feeding cycles in a row, you can use it for baking. If it successfully raises your dough, you can then begin to maintain your starter in a way to avoid or minimize discard.

Maintaining a "no-discard" starter merely takes a little advance planning: When you feed your starter, think about how much starter you have been using for your refreshments and start with that quantity. Then think about the breads you plan to make between feedings and how much starter you need to make them. Then add enough extra to make up for the amount that sticks to your jar and utensils. That's how much starter you should make. Hope this helps.

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40407/making-sourdough-starter-sauerkraut-juice

Notice I made a vigorous rye starter the week before this post with just rye flour in a tall narrow jar covered with water and let it stand. Read down the thread and there is a listing of activity to look for while you wait. I do remember having to skim the surface to remove some skum.  Temp is important. Not too warm or cold.

In another easy method, You can also make some stiff little dough balls with flour and water and just put them into a paper bag with a little bit of flour and ignore them for a week. Cut open the developed geodes and use the inside goop to inoculate fresh flour and water and give it some time to populate.  Always watch the temperature.

and another tip might include adding some whole wheat flour to the rye flour, stir, then gently pour water on top. We have since learned that fresh whole wheat cantains more wild yeast than the rye flour. Half a teaspoon of lemon juice in 500 ml water might get you the acid level found in apple or canned pineapple juice. Cheaper too.

I'm going to see again if I can find you a picture.  I had to trim off the top and bottom of the jar to get the photo in from my ipad. This photo is from Oct 8 2014 a day before I skimmed the surface and then stirred everything together, more or less feeding the starter that had developed in the wet flour layer between the dry flour and the water above. You can see tiny bubbles forming in the pink wet rye layer just above the darker wet rye layer that looks more like a thin band above the dry flour.  These gas bubbles slowly percolate to the surface dragging and stirring up the goopy wet layer making the rye stained water cloudy.  After the initial water is added on top of the dry flour ( day one) the water and flour separate and water stays pretty much clear until fermenting starts around day four. Temperature dependant.  A warmer first 24 hours will also speed up he whole process by a day or two.  Your results may vary.  Have fun!  :)   - Mini

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you might want to race one with a few spoonfuls of rye and another half&half with whole wheat.  Do boil nd cool the water first.  Where are you located?

I might suggest keeping separate pages in your notes for each starter including the "failures" as they often teach us the most.