green coating on sourdough sponge

[marnie]

Hello everyone!
I'm new to the forum and to Wild Fermentation. I've been working on my sourdough starter all week and today I started a sponge in preparation for making bread tomorrow. It has been 6 hours and I stirred the sponge once earlier today... but when I just went to look at it, it had a green 'growth' on top of it. I stirred it in but I am very hesitant to actually use this sponge now. I was so looking forward to my first homemade sourdough bread. Can anyone give some words of advice?
Thanks so much,
Marnie

[marnie]

Ok, 4.5 hrs later and there's another green coating on the sponge. Has anyone seen this before? I think it's done for and I'll have to start over, lol. It doesn't smell bad... but the green just doesn't look right...?

[Fubar]

Sounds like you have mold. I would throw it out and start over.

[marnie]

Thanks - yes, I did throw out the sponge, however the starter was still good and.... I made my first loaf today! Wow, I am so happy it turned out so well! I used wheat flour in the starter and added white bread flour for the dough, so it was about half and half, wheat:white. I just had a couple slices and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I expected a hard brick but it was good... definitely dense but not too much. YUM! I am hooked!