I'm down to 2 each in a bucket, the other four were transplanted into pots.

I've almost always startedin "window boxes" rather than lots of little peat pots or whatever. Less work but no bad effects on the plants, really. Of course, at this point you could not separate each plant. But, you could get a few nice plants out of the mess. lol

Same with the buckets, I always start with four, remove two of the slower plants (or plants showing male tendancies). End up with one or two females in a 5 or 6 gal bucket.

Shov