Or you could graft it onto a sugar maple seedling and know the graft is much more likely to take and last.

Put enough time and money into the attempt and you are nearing the territory of buying a named sugar maple of known superior characteristics from a nursery making more sense. If nobody nearby has one gallon stock you should be able to find it on the internet.

This place for instance, which even uses photos taken of the actual stock in the nursery with its descriptions.

Here is a link that might be useful: forestfarm Search Result - saccharum

This post was edited by bboy on Thu, Mar 20, 14 at 14:11

I don't know about compatibility but it shouldn't be hard to find sugar maple seedlings. Look for forestry seedlings from state government run forestry departments. Now is the season to get them. Unfortunately, now is not the time to graft them. Wait until they are dormant again. During spring the rootstock will be growing actively and sap could flood and kill the graft union. summer grafting is possible but more difficult, That will give you a season to pot up and grow your new seedlings a little. And try as many seeds as you can get. They will not be clones, but still come from this seemingly sentimental specimen. If you grow enough you will find one you like, maybe better than the parent.

Finding sugar maple seedlings that are zone 3 hardy is tough in Canada. That's why I found this note. I too would be very interested in such a graft, as silver maple seedlings are readily available.

I would also hope that the root stock would push some faster growth. Silver maples grow 2-3 times as fast, but have weaker joints. Silver maple is more tolerant of both wetter soils and of somewhat alkaline soils. (Silver maple adapts well to land that has/had balsam poplar. Sugar maple does well in land with aspen poplar.)