I have been successfully fermenting cabbage, carrots, and beets for many years. Tried to ferment dill pickles twice last year and blew it both times. Once I blew off 6 two quart ferments of dill pickles. It upset me due to the waste of food. What I finally realized was I was using too much salt. I would fill the jars with dill, garlic and cucumbers and then add six table spoons of salt and fill with filtered water. Wrong!!
After reading some of you on this board, it finally dawned on me to mix 1-1/2 to three tablespoons of sea salt in one quart of filtered water then add that water to the jar stuffed with pickles. Walla! Fermentation in one day and wonderful pickles ten days later. I was obviously using too much salt and killing the fermentation in my first two attempts. At least that is what I think. Any other thoughts? I left everything else exactly the same.