Abstract Rates of melt production and segregation in migmatites can be assessed using geochronology of accessory phases. Here we report on the distribution and growth patterns of accessory phases and their coupling with major phase microtextures and chemical zoning patterns in garnet. We propose that migmatization in SW Finland involved partial melting and subsequent moderate retrograde re-equilibration. The latter process has three major effects: (i) it partially obscures geochemical signatures formed during earlier equilibrium or disequilibrium melting; (ii) it excludes the possibility of very fast (< 100 years per batch) melt segregation rates in migmatites where restite-melt back reaction has operated; (iii) trace element distributions between leucosome and host rock cannot be used to infer melt segregation rates. Garnet MnO patterns show flat cores, suggesting high-grade equilibration, and sharply increasing concentrations at the rims, attributed to garnet-melt back reaction. Trace element patterns (Zr, Y and heavy rare earth elements) also document retrogression at the rims, but in addition preserve earlier growth zoning related to incongruent melting. We report retrograde zircon and xenotime growth associated with garnet resorption, here related to restite-melt back reaction in leucosome, melanosome and mesosome. Hence, geochronological studies of migmatite terranes should take into account that the youngest zircon material is not restricted to leucosome, but can also form overgrowths on corroded grains in melanosome and mesosome.