Picking tomatoes and cucumbers?

[Balr14]

I planted 3 tomatoe plants (one heirloom called a Mortgage Buster and two yellow pears) in one EarthBox. I had no clue but I think this is at least one too many plants. All 3 plants have grown quite well (about 8' tall and 3' around). The heirloom plant doesn't have a lot of tomatoes (about 10), but they are decent size (4" across). They don't seem to be getting any larger and aren't getting red very much. The same is true of my yellow pear tomatoes. They must be 100 of them but I've only seen 3 ripe ones. Has over-crowding affected them? Should I just wait?

I planted one cucumber plant in a container about 1/2 the size of an Earth Box (don't recall the name). I found out they need a lot of ground space or I can grow them on a trellis. So, now I have a cucumber plant that's as tall as my tomatoes. I've been told I need to pick the mature cucumbers or the small ones won't grow. Is this true?

I have about 5 mature cucumbers and 20 - 30 little ones. Should I be pinching off flowers to stop it from growing more cucumbers, because of the limited amount of soil to grow roots?

Thanks for your help.

[gardenerjag]

I have about 5 cucumber plants in one large pot. I just let them grow on my deck. I don't have as many little ones as you, but as they ripen, I cut them off and new ones grow. I would say keep taking off the big ones and just let the little ones grow.

What kind of cucumbers did you plant? How did you get so many on your plant?