I think I worked out what is happening when I get the ‘Jet Pack Surge’ and ‘Surge Fading’ words on screen. It appears that when you pick a plant that gives you platinum (a blue one I think) you have a few seconds to jump or jet a great distance. A power boost if you like. 
My earlier post is now solved! The Jet Pack Surge is nothing to do with ships flying close by and is not correct. I think it was just a coincidence and the ship must have flown by just after I had picked a plant. Or maybe it was a plant I shouldn’t have picked and left me hallucinating.
I haven’t tried picking a blue plant and then immediately trying the repeated space bar mashing you wrote of @DevilinPixy. But holding the jump button down I seemed to fly quite a distance.