Turns out the answer generating a custom PQS was a proper combination of UnityEngine.Object.DontDestroyOnLoad() and GameObject.SetActive().  PQS is now generated before the spawn of the PSystem (hooray!), but the prefab is a clone of Dres.  Previously, we couldn't even get a clone to work properly.  Tried to build from scratch, but the planet is invisible for some reason.  I'm thinking its the same problem i was having with making a custom scaled version.  In the test of complete scratch bring up, the terrain worked properly.  Its probably just the material.