I’m quite new to the sourdough world so I followed a recipe but I don’t believe it’s working. I’m on day 6 and my starter is not even bubbly. I’ve been feeding it every 12 hrs about 2tbs of each of foour and water. I’ve also used emmer flour. This is my starter this morning.
Please help I’m almost giving up on it 
what do I need to do?
I think you’ll find useful info here:
Going to step in here (maybe I shouldn’t) but will anyways. I have a Telegram channel where I post recipes and chat. Those on my channel have all used my method and EVERYONE has active starter before the end of the first week. Usually by day 5 they are making bread with their starter.
Now I agree with the last post above that different grains/flours will develop differently. If you are new at this I say STOP! Only use the whole grain on the first day AND THEN SWITCH TO all purpose flour for the balance of the time. I do not mind sharing my procedure which has a lot of information to understand what and why you are doing but don’t want to deal with the markup language on Breadtopia. Really this is not a big deal and NOT something you should be stressing over. Both of my girls have never baked bread before let alone sourdough OR MAKING a starter. Both did it successfully the first time. Feel free to contact me if you wish. geezerbaker93 at gmail.com
I did use all purpose flour for the last few feedings 
If you want to take this further I don’t mind helping. 5 to 7 days is all you should need providing you have a decent room temperature.
Thanks, I’m in the UK so temperatures have dropped the past few days where it was freezing outside and I left the starter on the counter in the kitchen. I think I’ll start over with AP flour as this one is already on day 7 and just smells like nail polish. I’ve been feeding just flour the last two feedings 
Get your some wholegrain rye flour, pure pineapple juice (no additives) and some perrier water. Then follow this thread…
I will give this a go!
But I will hold out one more day (hope dies last lol) For the past 3 feeds every 12 hours I’ve only been feeding AP flour and since morning it’s risen much more than it usually does. I’ve just done another feed now with strong white bread flour and will see what it’s like in the morning (the starter is much thicker now) still smells like nail polish. If in the morning it’s runny again, then I will discard and start over but maybe there’s still some chance? . Thanks so much.
Nail polish means hungry.
What was your last feed?
Look at this it doubled in size and it’s more bubbly now! I fed it last night at midnight just 30 grams of white flour! Not sure what to do next
I have been feeding it every 12 hours (only last night I did a midnight feed as I was out in the evening)
Haven’t fed it since last night at midnight it looks like it keeps growing
This is exciting!
How do I know if it’s ready to use?
It’ll need a few more feeds yet.
How much starter do you have now?
Not sure how much in weight, I’ve fed it again but only 1 tbsp of flour and stirred well.
Not sure if to discard or how to continue feeding as when I was feeding it 2 tbsp water + 2 tbsp flour nothing was happening and it was quite runny so that’s when I started to feed just flour after reading a few more posts around here.
This is what it’s looking like now after feeding it at lunchtime today.
Leave it for now and wait until it looks more lively. Then we’ll discuss a feeding regimen.
Thank you so much! How long should I leave it alone for?
See how it is by tonight.
Am I waiting on something particular to happen tonight, or what should I expect? It seems to be growing slowly again since feeding. This is my first attempt and very new to this - I really appreciate the help 
It’s difficult to tell you exactly what would happen when i’m not sure of the feed you have just given it. We’ll wait till tonight and then take it from there.
Ohh ok thanks again. The starter has more than doubled again in size since its last feeding a little over 5 hours ago.
I’m not so confident will grow past this point it’s similar as to the other day, but maybe I should leave it untouched for a while longer (tomorrow maybe?)
Not many bubbles on top though still smells soury-nail polishy
