There Is No “Correct” Feeding Schedule… And That’s Kind of the Point.

One of the most common questions I hear about sourdough starters is simple:

“How often should I feed it?”

Once a day? Twice a day? Every 12 hours? Only when it doubles? Only when it smells a certain way?

If you have ever searched for a clear, universal answer, you are not alone. And if trying to follow someone else’s schedule has left you feeling anxious or behind, I want to start with this:

There is no single correct feeding schedule for sourdough.

That is not a problem. It is an invitation.

Why Feeding Schedules Feel So Important

Sourdough can feel mysterious, especially at first. Fermentation happens slowly and much of the work is invisible. You cannot see microbes multiplying or acids developing. You only see the results later, sometimes hours or days after you’ve made a decision.

On top of that, your starter is constantly responding to its environment. Temperature, flour choice, hydration, and time all shape how quickly it ferments and how it behaves. A small change in one of those variables can lead to a noticeably different outcome. When something feels unpredictable or hard to read, it is very human to look for rules that promise clarity.

Schedules feel reassuring because they offer certainty. They suggest that if you follow the steps correctly and feed at the right time, success is guaranteed. When you’re new to sourdough, a schedule can feel like a lifeline. It gives you something concrete to hold onto while everything else feels abstract.

Much of the rigid advice around feeding schedules comes from professional baking environments. In production baking, consistency matters more than exploration. Bakers are working with large volumes of dough, strict timelines, and fixed bake schedules. Starters are fed to be ready at a specific moment so bread can move through a system efficiently and predictably.

Those schedules are designed to meet deadlines and support production. They are not designed to teach how fermentation behaves under different conditions, or how a starter responds when something changes.

Home baking is different.

At home, your starter does not need to perform on demand or fit into a production schedule. There is room to slow down, to notice patterns, and to let fermentation complete its full cycle. The goal is not just to make bread on time, but to understand what is happening along the way.

At home, your starter does not need to be controlled. It needs to be observed.

What Matters More Than the Clock

Instead of asking, “Is it time to feed my starter?” it can be more useful to shift the question slightly and ask what your starter is doing right now.

What does it look like?
Is it domed or beginning to fall? Full of bubbles or relatively smooth? Thick and spongy or loose and fluid?

What does it smell like?
Mild and wheaty, tangy and yogurt-like, sharply acidic, or sweet? Smell is one of the quickest ways to understand where your starter is in its fermentation cycle.

How warm is your kitchen?
Temperature has a major influence on fermentation speed. A starter in a warm kitchen will move much faster than the same starter kept in a cooler space, even if everything else stays the same.

What flour are you feeding it?
Whole grains and flours like spelt contain more nutrients and enzymes than white flour, which often leads to faster fermentation and more noticeable activity. Changing flour can change both timing and flavor.

How active has it been since the last feeding?
Has it risen and fallen? Is it still climbing? Has it barely moved at all? These patterns tell you far more than a set number of hours on the clock.

Time is still a factor, but it is only one variable, and often not the most important one.

A starter fed with whole grain or spelt will ferment differently than one fed with white flour. A starter kept in a warm kitchen will behave differently than one in a cooler environment. A young starter will act differently than a mature one that has found its rhythm. A thicker starter will ferment at a different pace than a more liquid one.

When we try to force all of these variables into a single feeding schedule, we flatten the experience. We trade observation for obedience and miss the chance to learn how fermentation actually works.Feeding as a Response, Not a Rule

Feeding a starter is not something you do because the clock says so. It is something you do in response to the culture’s activity.

Sometimes feeding more frequently makes sense, especially if you are baking often or building strength quickly.

Sometimes waiting longer is the better choice, allowing fermentation to complete its cycle, acids to develop, and structure to change.

Waiting is not neglect. Waiting is observation.

A starter that has gone longer between feedings is not failing. It is showing you how it responds to its environment and its food.

Why Flexibility Creates Better Bakers

Rigid rules can create dependence. Flexible systems build confidence.

When you rely on strict schedules, you are always looking outward for approval. You’re waiting for a chart, a clock, or an expert to tell you what to do next. That can be helpful at the very beginning, but it does not teach you how fermentation actually works.

Confidence comes from learning to read cues.

When you understand what feeding does to flavor, acidity, and fermentation speed, you stop needing someone else to tell you exactly when to act. You begin to notice patterns. You learn how your starter behaves when it is hungry, when it is fully fermented, and when it is over-acidified. You make decisions based on what you see, smell, and feel, not because a certain number of hours has passed.

Mastering fermentation is not about perfect timing. It is about recognition.

It is knowing the difference between a starter that is slow because it is cold and one that is sluggish because it needs food. It is understanding how a sweeter smell differs from a sharply acidic one, and what each of those cues tells you. It is learning how texture and structure change over time, and how those changes connect to flavor and strength.

That is the goal of learning sourdough. Not obedience to a schedule, but literacy in fermentation.

Bread is a system. Feeding schedules are one tool within that system. They can be useful, especially in certain contexts, but they are not the point. The point is understanding how the system responds, so you can adapt it to your kitchen, your flour, and your goals.

Try This Instead

The next time you are standing in your kitchen, looking at your starter and wondering if you are doing something wrong, pause for a moment.

If your starter is alive, sometimes active, sometimes slower, smelling tangy or sweet or even a little funky, that is not a sign of failure. It is information.

Before you reach for the flour or check the clock, try asking yourself two questions:

What is my starter doing right now?
What do I want it to do next?

Then make your choice from there. Feed it. Wait. Change the flour. Adjust the temperature. Take a note and see what happens.

You do not need to get it “right” immediately. The goal is not perfection, but practice.

Each time you ask those questions and respond, you are learning how fermentation works in your own kitchen. Over time, that understanding will matter far more than any fixed feeding schedule ever could.

If you find yourself wanting support as you learn to read these cues, that is exactly what my classes are designed for.

In Breaducated workshops and private lessons, we focus less on rigid instructions and more on understanding fermentation as a system. We look at how time, temperature, flour, hydration, and feeding choices interact, and we practice noticing what dough and starters are telling us in real time.

Whether you are brand new to sourdough or trying to move beyond following recipes, the goal is the same: building confidence through observation, experimentation, and informed decision-making.