Once your starter is established, the next thing you have to figure out is how often and how much to feed it. The shorthand bakers use is a three-number ratio: 1:1:1, 1:2:2, 1:5:5, and so on. The numbers look cryptic if no one has explained them. Once they're explained, they're the simplest thing in the world.
What the three numbers mean
The three numbers are, in order: starter : flour : water, all measured by weight.
- `1:1:1` = 1 part old starter, 1 part flour, 1 part water. Equal weights of all three.
- `1:2:2` = 1 part starter, 2 parts flour, 2 parts water. The starter is now 1/5th of the total.
- `1:5:5` = 1 part starter, 5 parts flour, 5 parts water. The starter is now 1/11th of the total.
- `1:10:10` = 1 part starter, 10 parts flour, 10 parts water. Used for very long maintenance gaps.
Notice that the second and third numbers are almost always equal. That's because most starters are kept at 100% hydration: equal weights of flour and water. If you keep a stiff starter (50% hydration), the ratio convention changes; we'll get to that at the end.
A worked example
Suppose you have 100 g of starter in the jar and you want to feed it 1:2:2. The numbers tell you the proportions, not the absolute amounts. You can scale them however you like.
Option A: feed all 100 g
→ Total 500 g of fed starter.
Option B: discard most, feed only 20 g
→ Total 100 g of fed starter (other 80 g discarded).
Same 1:2:2 ratio, two different scales. The ratio is what matters; the absolute weight depends on how much fed starter you actually need.
Option B is the more common approach for daily maintenance: keep the jar small, discard most of what's there, feed a small amount. Option A is what you'd do the day before a big bake when you want to build up a lot of fed starter.
What the ratio actually controls
Higher ratios (more flour and water relative to starter) buy you more time before the starter peaks. Lower ratios mean a faster peak.
The mechanism is simple. The starter you put in carries a fixed population of yeast and bacteria. They eat their way through the new flour. The more flour you give them relative to their starting numbers, the longer they take to consume it all and reach peak activity.
- `1:1:1` at `22 °C / 72 °F` → peaks in roughly
4–6hours. - `1:2:2` at `22 °C / 72 °F` → peaks in roughly
6–9hours. - `1:5:5` at `22 °C / 72 °F` → peaks in roughly
10–14hours. - `1:10:10` at `22 °C / 72 °F` → peaks in roughly
16–24hours.
These are starting estimates, not laws. Your starter's strain, the flour you use, and most importantly the temperature will shift these by a lot. The Q10 rule from the Foundations article applies: every 10 °C / 18 °F cooler roughly halves the speed.
How to pick a ratio for your schedule
Match the ratio to the time you want between feedings.
- Two feedings a day, every 12 hours. Use
1:5:5. Each feeding peaks in about 10–14 hours, then sits at peak briefly before declining. This is the most predictable schedule for serious bakers. - One feeding a day, same time daily. Use
1:5:5or1:10:10depending on your kitchen temperature. Cooler kitchen → lower ratio is fine. Warmer kitchen → push higher. - Once-a-day at a warm room (above `25 °C / 77 °F`). Use
1:10:10or even1:20:20. Otherwise you risk the starter overshooting peak and falling into hooch territory before you get back. - Building up for a bake (you need a lot of fed starter in 8 hours). Use
1:2:2and the timing is reliable. - Quick same-day refresh (you need active starter in 4 hours). Use
1:1:1and feed it warm.
The common mistake
Beginners often default to 1:1:1 and feed twice a day at room temperature. This works, but the starter spends most of its day past peak: already in decline, with rising acidity and weakening structure. Over time this favours the bacterial side of the culture and you end up with a starter that produces tangy bread but with weak rise.
The fix is to use a higher ratio so the starter is mostly *climbing* between feedings, not declining. If you're feeding twice a day, 1:5:5 is the better default than 1:1:1.
When you need to bake: the levain
The starter you keep in the jar is your mother culture. When you're ready to bake, you build a separate, larger amount of fed starter specifically for the bread. This is called a levain. The levain is just a one-off feeding scaled to give you the amount your recipe calls for.
If your bread recipe needs 200 g of fed starter, and you're using a 1:5:5 ratio, you'd build the levain by combining 33 g mother starter + 167 g flour + 167 g water. Wait until it peaks (estimate from the temperature), then mix the dough.
Building the levain separately means you don't have to feed your mother culture in massive amounts every time you bake. The mother stays small and easy to maintain; the levain scales up to whatever the bake needs.
Stiff starters
If you keep a stiff starter (sometimes called *lievito madre* in Italian baking, used for panettone and similar long-fermented sweet breads), the convention is different. The flour and water aren't in equal weights; the dough is more like 50–60% hydration. A typical stiff starter feeding might be 1:2:1 (1 part starter, 2 parts flour, 1 part water by weight).
Stiff starters develop slower, taste milder, and store longer between feedings. Most home bakers don't need one. If you're baking Italian sweet breads or panettone seriously, that's the moment to learn one.
When you set up a starter in the Starter tracker, you can save your default feeding ratio (e.g., `1:5:5`) and the app will compute the gram amounts based on whatever weight is currently logged for the jar. The peak-time prediction uses both your saved ratio and the current ambient temperature: when the ratio changes, the predictor recalculates.
The takeaway
Pick a ratio that matches how often you want to feed. Higher ratio for longer gaps, lower ratio for faster peaks. Most home bakers serve themselves better with 1:5:5 than with 1:1:1. If your starter feels weak or sluggish, the answer is usually fewer, larger feedings, not more, smaller ones.