Hi Will:

Thank you for a helpful and informative reply. Unfortunately, in Florida we
seldom have cellars <g>.

Yet, within your reply I am interested in the growth rates of the yeast and
LB's. I have perused some of the information on the growth curves including
the Michael G. Gänzle, Michaela Ehmann, and Walter P. Hammes' study
(http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/article...i?artid=106434 -- not that I
would pretend to understand most of it but I get the drift that 85F is a
good compromise temperature to encourage growth for both the LB's and
yeast.).

Coincidently, I have been looking at the Detmold 3-Stage Process discussed
on Samartha's site (http://samartha.net/SD/procedures/DM3/index.html ). I
note that (if I am reading it correctly) his starter hydration varies from
140 in Stage 1 down to 66 at stage 2, then back to 90 at Stage 3.

While the Detmold 3-Stage Process is for use with rye breads, does
hydration have any affect on either LB or yeast growth rates in wheat
breads? That is, is there any difference in LB/ yeast growth rates in a
150% or 200% hydration culture versus a 50% to 60% hydration culture, or
even less at the same ambient temperature?

Are you storing your cultures in dough balls simply as an effort to level
the growth rate playing field between the LB's and yeast, or is the
extremely low hydration a factor? I have read anecdotally that bread made
with a chef (meaning a lump of old dough, in case I am using the terminology
wrong) are more ______ {choose one or mo sour, complex, assertive, tangy,
etc.}. I have never tried it, but it seems that is close to what you are
doing.

So far, I did not find, except perhaps an indirect reference by Dick A in a
post, where varying hydration during starter development has been discussed.
I inferred from that post (Dick A's) that normal sourdough hydration
percentages did not have any significant effect on growth rates. However,
there was no mention of hydrations in the 150% to 200% range nor in
extremely low hydration rates.

Again, thanks to you and everyone else for some very helpful information.

Regards,

Ray