I was taught, a long time ago, that  plants produce nectar at specific
times and do shut off. I have noticed it in my own garden, where bees
will visit plants at specific times of the day, and not at others.

I did a quick search and nectar secretion by plants is all over the
board as far as time, amount and concentration of sugars. So a plant
like buckwheat shutting down production (plants do adsorb their excess
nectar) is genetic and has to do with a variety of good, survival reasons.

There is a good writeup on nectar production in the Hive and the Honey
Bee. 'Taint simple.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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