I've been reading through the different threads about starters and
there seems to be some contradiction regarding worrying about stuff and
not worrying about it. I've been keeping my various starters in small
spoon size jam pots for a while. As long as you fill them as full as
you dare without them braking for the border they're fine. It's where
they come into contact with the air that they get weird color going on,
and quarter of an inch below that they're fine. If you're going to be
around to continuously feed your starter every day then you can feed it
every few days in fridge without it getting even remotely off color. It
takes weeks for mine to look in need of attention and then after
scraping of the odd colored bit and diluting a little they're fine
ready for baking with in no time, even more so if you give them the
temp they like. And they do prefer a temp., regardless of what someone
said about that.

One guy mentions a few measurements and gets his head bitten off,
another gets out a pH metre and suddenly that's normal and not at all
taking things too far. Unless you're entering some kind of competition
with your bread, chill out. It's really no big deal if you get a
hiccup. I think going from leaving your culture so long that it gets
mold on top and feeding out on the counter every day is going from one
extreme to another. Keep it on the dry side when it's in the fridge,
just moist enough to be able to move and you'll be fine for weeks. If
you're going to bake three times a week then you can keep your starter
peeked and ready to go. Relax. These guys will look after themselves if
you let them. Oh, Hutch, I don't want to repeat what Kenneth's already
said but try not to obsess about cups, a measure is a measure, if it be
a spoon or a cup, it's just a measure, there's nothing special bout the
size of the measure. I think that's what Kenneth is getting at in a
more skilful way than me :-) If you want to feed your culture every
day, cool, do it on a less industrial scale :-)

tg