Greetings to everyone. I have recently discovered the world of soudough
baking, and would like to learn more about the pros, cons, and differences
between various ingredients and other factors in the sourdough process.
I've started a starter from scratch, and it seems to work tolerably. You
can find descriptions of it in the recently created forum
http://sourdough.com.au/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=2 (posted as SourGeek), and
gory historical details at http://www.biology-online.org/biology-
forum/forum-3.html in the Yeast, Chlorine, ... thread (BreadHead). While
the starter does make bread after a fashion, there may be room for
improvement, so it would be nice to work on changing it. Specifically,
I've been wondering about a few issues that seem important:

a) differences in requirements between the phases of the process (starting
the starter, maintaining the starter, growing the sponge, raising the
dough)
b) differences between flour types (white, bread, whole wheat, rye) in each
phase
c) effects of environmental conditions, for instance temp, wetness,
aeration, feeding rate, and bleach

I've found the Q&A and Doctor files here, and Dan Wing's book, all of which
are excellent. Also several other sources. But they don't always agree
with each other, and often don't explain the reasons for their methods. I
don't mind plowing through one or two microbiology books, as long as they
cover yeasts & LB and aren't too far over my head. If you have any hints
or clues that might help, please take your time responding. I'm interested
in developing my own starter rather than buying, and would like to
experiment with it to make it better. Thanks in advance.