The plants will be stressed no matter what.

How long ago did you plant them? How tall are they now? Are any setting fruit?

the plants vary from 24-36 inches (more or less). and yes - they are setting fruit.

The problems with holes is that limits the area through
which the roots will grow. You'd probably end up with
more roots circling the bottom of the plant than would
come out the holes.

Perhaps cutting the bottom out of the 3 gal pots would
suffice, but transplanting would be better.

Yes, it will stress the plants, but in the long run, you'll
end up better.

And it you can get bigger than 5 gal, even better yet.

I always plant in 15 gallon pots.
I would just carefully transplant them, maybe take a few bottom leaves off and plant them deep also.

Sorry but drilling holes won't help. The plant will still get root bound in such a small container. If you are willing you can cut the old plastic pot off but that is seldom needed. You can usually just pull plant and all carefully out of the old container and move it to the larger - much larger - one.

Dave

thank you all - i'm going to try cutting the current containers off and replant in larger containers. hope i don't mess this up. thanks again!