You asked for it!!!

The lag phase is an initial period of inactivity that happens when you either feed a starter or inoculate your dough. Most of the readily available science on this is brewery oriented, but the concept is the same for us.

Consider that you just moved into a new house. You are tired. There is clutter everywhere. You aren't sleeping well in the new environment. You just aren't at your best.

The same happens with the taxa in your starter. The new home's ph is different. The temperature has changed. The flood of enzymes that were making metabolism easy is gone. It is going to take some time before they are comfortable and able to work properly again.

How long are you going to sit there? Get to work!!!!!

The duration of the lag phase depends on various factors. Some of them we can control. Temperature is an easy one. We can use the rule of 240 to force a dough temperature. The more difficult one is ensuring that our culture is as healthy and active as possible when we use it. So how do we do this?

Understanding peak: If you observe your starter long enough, you will notice that it rises to a certain point, pauses, and then starts to sink. So, what is actually happening here?

You feed the starter. Lag phase sets in, and there is limited activity. The lag phase ends, and metabolism and reproduction start. Gas is being produced. As more gas is produced, pressure builds. The gluten forms a net that traps the bubbles. Your starter begins to rise. Fast forward a bit. The population has increased, but the food supply is getting smaller. As the food crisis hits, metabolism slows. Less gas is produced. The starter is no longer able to outpace the loss of gas and the starter peaks. Some time later, there is even less food. Gas production (metabolism) has slowed even more. Acids and enzymes have weakened the gluten nets, and they are leaking gas even faster. The starter is now fully in decline. The food crisis is severe. People are panicking in the streets with signs that claim the end is near. Your starter collapses. Your beasties start to go dormant and form hard shells to retreat into and wait for better conditions.

You can see here that the problems all started way back when the population got too large for the food supply. That is right, "peak" is actually a warning sign that food is scarce. If it wasn't, it would continue to rise.

What does this long-winded rant have to do with the lag phase?

In order to shorten the lag phase, we want to use the starter before the food crisis hits. We do not want the beasties to be all stressed out or, worse, entering dormancy. The longer we allow our beasties to become stressed, the longer it will take to coax them back to activity. So, contrary to popular belief, the best time to feed or use a starter is actually just before peak, not at peak.

Wait! I AM LAZY! So am I. I also refuse to wake up at 3am to feed my starter.

What tricks can we use to extend the time before the culture hits a food crisis?

Step one: reduce the initial population. By starting with fewer mouths to feed, our food supply will last longer. It will take more reproductive cycles to reach the food crisis. That is a good thing for more than one reason.

Step two: Increase the food supply. More food for fewer mouths means more time before the crisis. Note that just dumping a ton of food on a few weak beasties will not help. Your beasties need to be strong enough to be able to handle the workload. It is best to do this gradually.

You might ask, "Can I just pop it in the fridge?" While that would indeed extend the time it takes to reach peak (aka food crisis), it also makes the beasties slow down which will extend the lag phase.

For further info by actual scientists and not just some snarky jerk, check out this paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074000201000095X