Ginny, the reason there are so many different ways to do things is that there are a lot that work. Having had a starter going for over a year now, I've found that it isn't that picky. For example, your original question of how much starter to add to make the sponge. It isn't critical. If the amount added is very small, then the sponge will take longer to double because it's starting out with very little yeast. If you add a lot and your starter is a wet one, then you may need to adjust the amount of flour you add to the bread later to get the dough right. I keep my starter in a glass jar in the fridge because it is a convenient size. I'm skeptical about the "no metal" thing. I wouldn't use a reactive metal, but I've stirred with stainless steel and haven't found it to do any harm. I sometimes let my dough rise in a stainless steel bowl. I was a bit worried about whether my starter survived chemo. I only managed to get it out once during the last 5 months when I went through several cycles of fed and double until it was doubling quickly again. Yesterday I finally got it out of the fridge again. It took a while to double (the house is pretty cool at this time of year too) but by this morning it had doubled. It is pretty hardy stuff.

I bet it smells wonderful! I have some starter Teresa sent me months and months ago..I haven't really had time yet to babysit it and care for it as it should be, so I have yet to activate it. But soon I hope to.

All these posters have given you good advice and I agree with drying some of the starter in case you happen to lose your "mother" starter. I dry starter every six months or so just so I will always have some put back. Disclaimer: I am not an authority on sourdough, I only advise bakers according to my own experience. And I am sure that other sourdough bakers posting here are giving advice on what they have learned through research and their own experience. But this is what I think can be confusing for newbie sourdough bakers; there is so much information out there on the internet and in books that it can get very confusing. I recommend that newbies follow a single method of activating, feeding, and baking to see if that method works for them. Keep it simple, sweetie! I just don't want anyone to get discouraged by so much conflicting information. Off and on for years I tried to start my own sourdough and it never worked well for me except for my mom's potato flake batter bread recipe that starts with yeast not the wild beasties. Then several years ago I sent off for a proven strain, Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter and finally I had success. I now have Sourdough Jack's starter also and I made a whole wheat starter using pineapple juice successfully - so...don't give up! Teresa

Yes, there was tiny starter mentioned on a previous thread but I don't remember which one. It was an idea from a website. King Arthur maybe? It's successful. It's too bad you composted the other starters if they were good. You can dry them. Use a pastry brush to make a thin layer on a piece of parchment or similar, let it dry, then fold into a cone and crumple so that it funnels into your jar. You can maintain a starter of any size, even a tablespoon. It just gets a little harder, to use because you have to feed up so much more. The other potential pitfall is having a sufficient volume to keep the colony healthy. That is, if something goes wrong, if there's a contaminant in the water or flour, if it goes too long between feedings, etc., is there enough of it to fight back and recover. My 170g and 180g starters keep going even when I neglect them. The reason those are 200g is that I prefer less hydration. That's another way to go about it. I also have a specialty starter at 45% hydration, which is nearly dry by the time I use it, but still alive and perky the instant I add water. Like Linda, I put all discard in the same jar and keep it in the fridge. One batch of waffles every couple of months is sufficient to keep the level down. Yes, months. It keeps really well in the fridge, as do the starters. If the starter is well fed, rather the neglected which requires an extra feeding, when I'm baking, I put the discard right into the preferment. But, yes, you can keep a smaller starter.