7 day dried flowers do not smell very strong and should I cure the live stem or let it dry?

Hey, Unfortunately not every strain will smell strong/the same after drying. To conserve the terpenes make sure to dry as slowly as possible without risking pathogens (drying whole plants = slower drying) in cold temps around 60-70 degrees fahrenheit / 16-20 degrees celsius while maintaining a relative humidity around 50-58%. This process should take around 12-16 days, depending on your environment. Warmer and drier = quicker, obviously. During this slow dry the chlorophyll has enough time to evaporate and the terpenes are preserved, leaving you with a finished product with a good smell. As far as the plants smell allows it ofc, again not every plant is going to smell strong/like the living plant.) I like to dry trim to further protect the buds / terpenes during drying. I just remove some very big and damaged leaves when harvesting, then hang the whole plant upside down. After drying and trimming i jar them up and theyre ready. Make sure to burp your jars during the first weeks. Store them in the same conditions/environment youre drying in (cold, dark and ~55% rh) Personally, i dont feel the need to "cure/ferment" my weed with this drying method, as soon as its finished its perfect to consume. Maybe let it breathe a couple hours in fresh air before consuming during the first weeks. During the drying process the smell will "disappear" after some days and there will be a "hay" smell, dont worry its just the chlorophyll evaporating, which is what we want. The orginal smell will come back when you break up/trim the finished/dried buds. Guess your buds just need a little more time! Be patient, dont jar them too early. A good test to see if theyre ready is to snap the stems close to medium sized buds, they should snap/break with a clicking noise, if they just bend with no noise its too early. Or you can smoke it, with experience you will be able to tell that way if theyre ready or not. Good luck!