It looks like you are contemplating vermicomposting on a pretty big scale - bigger than most of us here with our basement and backyard bins. Here, have this:

Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture By Glenn Munroe Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

http://www.organicagcentre.ca/DOCs/Vermiculture_FarmersManual_gm.pdf

It's an excellent resource for larger-scale vermicomposting.

I don't see any reason why this combination of ingredients wouldn't work well, but the details of setup and management are numerous and will require some extensive homework on your part. It also looks like you'd need quite a lot of worms, so you'll need to calculate how many and figure out where to source them.

Do the cardboard boxes have wax coating. I have seen boxes with wax coating at the grocer's for leaf-veggie and sometimes fruit. I don't use these but I guess if they are shredded, they will break down easier.

Parsley, Thank you, I don't have to start on quite this massive scale. This waste stream is created every fall. The fruit processor is to the point of paying to get these material hauled to the landfill. Seems like a waste off organic material to me. I'm also considering just composting some of it.

Oti, no wax coating, but yes these are the big cardboard boxes you sometimes see produce in at the grocery store.

I did wonder whether you couldn't just compost it. Provided you have the space and equipment to handle it, that would spare you the expense of buying a large number of worms, and might make more sense if you aren't processing these materials on an ongoing basis but only once per year. The worms would need to eat year round, after all!

I'm with you on that Bill, hate to see all that stuff going to landfill. Don't know where your living but where I am all that cardboard would be headed for recycling.

If you were planning on using some I think you'd need some pretty heavy-duty shredder! Check out NW Redworms, I think he had posted a video of all the worms he was getting by just leaving a bunch of cardboard laying flat on the bare ground. As long as is stayed moist there were eventually a lot of worms that hung out between the layers of cardboard.

IMO best to start small and find out what works before expanding.

Harry

I would say skip the efforts to worm farm and just compost it. Cardboard boxes are better recycled and should have value. Pomace may or may not need much in the way of extra browns, since stems and whatnot are pretty brown. Probably the only thing to control is whether there is a lot of sugars in the pomace that would attract a lot of fruit flies and possibly alcohol smells. If you noodle around the Intertubes, you'll find a fair amount of information about possible uses for pomace and suggestions about how to compost with minimal fuss. Overall should make a good compost / soil amendment.

Only partly on topic, an interesting podcast about cardboard. https://gimletmedia.com/episode/19-cardboard/https://gimletmedia.com/episode/19-cardboard/

The relevant take-away: cardboard is valuable in recycling, has the long fibres needed to make more cardboard (and avoid more trees being cut down). With the volume of cardboard you have in the picture above, it should have some value, including money. I compost a lot of my brown cardboard, but largely because not easy for me to recycle and easiest source of browns (and volumes not large). Nice for the garden but recycling cardboard is probably better for the environment - composting still better than landfill of course.

Thank you all.

Parsley, I have a section of heavy clay ground a half yard bucket on my loader so I have space and equipment. One of my winter projects is to turn a tractor mounted snow blower into a windrow turner. I think it will work. :)

Harry and armoured, it could be recycled but there is the cost to transport it. Cheaper to just throw it out.

BTW I'm on the south shore of Lake Erie.

Other growers just spread the 'raw' pomace on their fields, I would think that composting it first would be beneficial.

I'm thinking of layering equal amount of cardboard and pomace to about two or three feet high let that cook for a bit then turn it. I'm afraid this post is now in the wrong forum:)

I guess I'll get some bins and try it small with kitchen scraps with a hand full of pomace for variety.

I've read of 'finishing' compost with worms, how 'unfinished' is cold compost?

I've no opinion on which of these is better - spreading it on the fields is a form of composting, too, and you can certainly compost the cardboard if you can't dispose of it otherwise, another soil amendment. As for 'finishing' with worms, it can't hurt to seed the windrows with worms - start as soon as the piles/rows are not too hot. Not sure it'll be worth the extra effort to manage on a large scale, but can't hurt.

On the cardboard, you know your area, but waste disposal/recycling/cardboard manufacturers - if any in your area - might pick up for free or even pay you. Granted, not much, but would save you having to shred it.