Crossword Genius

Plant the thing and make yourself scarce (3,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hop it

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'plant' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'thing and make yourself scarce' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'thing' could be 'it' and 'it' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hop' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'the' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hop it that I've seen before include "split" , "get out quick!" , "Clear off!" , "Leave" , "Go away (colloq.)" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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